PIMCO in Talks With Affirm for Two-Floor San Francisco Lease

Affirm Holdings is close to a headquarters deal in San Francisco.

The buy-now-pay-later company is in discussions to lease two floors at 221 Main Street in the Financial District, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The deal would be for about 47,000 square feet in the six-story building.

PIMCO Prime Real Estate, formerly Allianz Real Estate, owns the building. The Munich, Germany-based PIMCO subsidiary bought a 45 percent stake in the property from Columbia Property Trust in 2020 for $180 million. It went on to grab another 45 percent stake after PIMCO acquired Columbia in late 2021. PIMCO-owned Columbia is still responsible for managing the building.

Affirm was founded in 2012 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and set up shop at 650 California Street in Chinatown, also owned by Columbia, in 2017. At that time, the company signed an eight-year lease for 86,000 square feet across four floors in the building. The firm seemingly extended its lease at some point as it has one more year left on its lease, according to the Business Times.

If the deal closes, Affirm’s headquarters would be smaller than its space at 650 California, though the company has subleased some of its space there to other tenants in recent years. The fintech firm reported impairment charges of $1.2 million in 2023 and $800,000 last year for subleasing out portions of its offices.

Aside from Affirm, software company DocuSign and financial services company Prosper Marketplace also have offices at 221 Main Street. Late last year, math-focused high school Proof School leased about 35,000 square feet on the first and second floors of the building. JLL, working with Columbia to lease the building, is searching for a tenant or tenants to lease approximately 123,000 square feet in the building.

— Chris Malone Méndez