San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has a plan to transform vacant offices across the city.
Lurie’s proposed legislation, unveiled today, allows downtown building owners to skirt the existing approvals process and turn spaces zoned for retail into office amenities, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Business Times reported.
Under the new guidelines, the ground floors of buildings zoned for commercial tenants could be used for nonretail purposes.
The mayor’s new proposal is all about “keeping businesses from moving into our empty office space,” he told the Business Times. “That’s how we create the conditions for businesses to want to be back in our city and make sure we continue San Francisco’s rise.”
LaSalle Investment Management, which owns 201 Mission Street in the Financial District, is among those looking to take advantage of the new permitting process.
The former Starbucks on the ground floor of the office tower has been closed since 2023, and LaSalle hopes to turn the space into a gym for tenants, which under current laws could take nearly a year and cost tens of thousands of dollars by the San Francisco Planning Department’s estimates.
The special designation would apply to much of FiDi and South of Market. Building owners in residential-commercial zoning districts in parts of the Tenderloin and Nob Hill would be able to build amenities for office tenants on buildings’ upper floors.
The push to revamp the conditional-use permit process is part of Lurie’s new PermitSF initiative. With FiDi’s 35.8 percent vacancy rate, landlords are looking for other ways to use their spaces as retail foot traffic falls.
Other landlords are pushing to bring office amenities to their ground-floor spaces. In December, Norges Bank, owner of 405 Howard Street, proposed converting a 5,000-square-foot former First Republic bank at the base of the building into a presentation space and lounge areas for tenants. That project remains under review.
Lurie’s ground-floor legislation, co-sponsored by city supervisors Danny Sauter and Bilal Mahmood, would sunset in 2030, at which time the city could assess its effects. If approved, which would likely require support from the San Francisco Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors, the proposal could take effect as soon as this fall.
— Chris Malone Méndez