Strada Investment’s Lot 330 Development Moving Forward

Strada Investment Group is pivoting on its plans for offices on San Francisco’s Embarcadero.

The San Francisco-based firm has received approval from the San Francisco Port Commission to split up its proposal to build housing and office space on the Embarcadero, SF Examiner reported.

Under the change, the developer will be allowed to construct 618 units of housing at Seawall Lot 330, currently a parking lot, while hitting pause on the construction of a 375,000-square-foot office building on a 13-acre site at Piers 30 through 32 across the street. That office development will be placed on hold for the next 18 months at minimum.

The change in plans was partially made in response to ongoing troubles in San Francisco’s commercial real estate market amid a slow post-pandemic recovery, Strada founding partner Jesse Blout told the Examiner.

“We’re pretty bullish on San Francisco’s residential market,” Blout said. “We have conviction that the market is zooming back.”

The proposed residential buildings would have nearly 200 affordable units set aside for low-income renters as well as 13,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. In San Francisco, low-income is generally defined as making 80 percent or less of the area median income annually, working out to $87,300 for one person or $124,700 for a household of four.

Strada points to its recently opened Quincy apartments at 555 Bryant Street as evidence of a housing market comeback, according to Blount. Since the building opened in May, half of the 501 units have already been leased.

“In that timeframe, [that’s] really unprecedented,” Blout said. Coupled with increasing rental prices, developers like Strada might have more cash on hand to build new housing projects. “It’s caught even us off guard just how quickly the market has rebounded,” Blout said.

Strada and the Port will spend the next 18 months reviewing the Piers 30 through 32 office project and outline a plan to make it financially feasible. The company is “very invested in finding the solution” to allow the offices to move forward, Blout said.

— Chris Malone Méndez