Beleaguered San Francisco Oceanwide Center Gets Buyer

San Francisco’s long-stalled Oceanwide Center project has found a buyer.

Dan Kingsley, co-founder of Bay Area development firm SKS Partners, is in contract to buy the abandoned development at 50 First Street, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Kingsley, along with private equity alum Jay Yang, are reportedly in talks with Haitong International, a lender on the project that seized it in 2021 from original developer Oceanwide Holdings. A purchase and sale agreement has yet to be finalized, and the partners’ plans for the site haven’t been disclosed.

Construction on Oceanwide Center started at the end of 2016 with a plan to create two high-rises with offices, condominiums and a high-end hotel. The goal was to wrap up construction in just four years. But the 2 million-square-foot project was left in the hole — figuratively and literally — due to Oceanwide Holdings’ financial woes.

The taller building was approved for 910 feet, which would’ve been the city’s second-tallest building after Salesforce Tower. The tower would have included 1.2 million square feet of offices and 109 residential units.

The smaller tower would’ve risen 600 feet and included 156 residential units and a 169-room Waldorf Astoria hotel. In total, the cost of the development effort was valued at $1.6 billion.

Construction on the smaller tower came to a halt in 2019 amid rising construction costs and stifled Chinese capital spending. The taller tower was abandoned by the middle of the following year. The project’s general contractors Swinerton and Webcor exited the project in 2020 citing a lack of payment; they sued the developer in hopes of securing more than $100 million in unpaid work claims.

An arbitration panel eventually sided with Swinerton and Webcor, awarding a payment of $21 million. A court-ordered sale could still be in the property’s future, depending on a judge’s ruling next month to confirm whether Haitong should be the first to receive compensation, with the Shanghai-based firm claiming it’s owed $43 million on a delinquent mortgage it provided.

If Kingsley and Yang, or another buyer, opt to proceed with the current entitlements on the property, they would have to apply for permit renewals with the Department of Building Inspection.

The story of San Francisco’s Oceanwide Center mirrors that of Los Angeles’ infamous Oceanwide Plaza, which has become a magnet for graffiti in downtown L.A. as financial woes plague the site and hold the development in limbo.

— Chris Malone Méndez