The headlines out of San Francisco’s commercial and office market this year tell the story of a boom or bust city once again striking gold. Time will tell whether the energy around artificial intelligence will prove to be fool’s gold; but in the interim the growing ecosystem of AI startups is flush with venture capital cash and populating long-vacant office spaces throughout the city.
As we’ve reported, those office spaces are increasingly of the trophy, Class A variety. Such a flight to quality often leaves the city’s older, Class B and C office stock increasingly vacant. In the short-term, this tanks values; in the long term, it creates an opportunity for investors willing to trade some risk for a good deal on an old building.
Silicon Valley-based neurosurgeon and investor Dr. Reza Malek ran into one of these opportunities recently. Ramosa LLC, a company tied to his name, dropped $6.8 million to purchase the International Order of Odd Fellows Temple in San Francisco’s MidMarket neighborhood. The property, at the corner of Market and 7th streets, has belonged to the fraternal order since 1880. The Odd Fellows built the existing six-story, 48,000-square-foot building in 1909, a few years after demolishing the previous structure to slow the spread of the fire that engulfed the city following the 1906 earthquake.
The property had been on the market since 2023, right around the time the CVS occupying the ground floor had closed its doors and social issues such as crime and drug use had consumed the area. In its most recent chapter, the building had become a magnet for artists and studios, and maintains a handful of tenants, including renowned San Francisco artist Richard Perri, and the contemporary ballet company Alonzo King Lines Ballet.
Another San Francisco landmark made headlines this week as film director Francis Ford Coppola works to get his financial house back in order.
According to documents filed with the San Francisco assessor-recorder’s office, Coppola has put up his Sentinel Building as collateral to guarantee a new private loan. Situated in the North Beach neighborhood, the seven-story, patina green structure is modeled after Manhattan’s Flat Iron Building and stands as one of San Francisco’s most recognizable facades. Coppola bought the building in 1973 for $500,000. The building had been the headquarters of Coppola’s production company, American Zoetrope, and has long-hosted the eponymous eatery, Cafe Zoetrope, on the ground floor.
According to the documents, Coppola has taken out the loan with Capital Holdings VI LLC. Neither the amount, or the purpose of the loan, are disclosed in the documents. However, if Coppola defaults on the loan, Capital Holdings VI has the right to take over the Sentinel Building as landlord.
Coppola has used the structure as collateral at least twice in the past, including in 1998 to take out a $1.5 million loan with First Republic Bank.
The director’s recent money problems have been well-documented. After self-financing last year’s “Megalopolis” for $120 million, the film grossed less than $15 million. Since then, Coppola has off-loaded his island in Belize, and has plans to sell seven watches next month, one which is expected to fetch north of $1 million.
“I need to get some money to keep the ship afloat,” he told the New York Times last month.
Just a few blocks southeast from where one of the cinema’s elder statesmen is betting with one of the city’s landmarks from its cherished past, a nonprofit CEO is taking a political bet on downtown San Francisco’s future.
As the top executive for the Downtown San Francisco Partnership, Robbie Silver oversees day-to-day operations funded by the money the community benefit district collects from downtown property owners. The district, which largely funds sanitation and safety initiatives in the neighborhood, was formed in 2020 by a vote of property owners and includes Jackson Square and the Financial District. Those boundaries are set until 2034, but Silver is planning to force a vote next year in the hopes of expanding the district to include the area around the Embarcadero Center.
In an interview with the San Francisco Business Times, Silver likened the move to “a Hail Mary pass” that, if successful, would make for “potentially the largest special assessment district in California.” However, the move involves some risk. Property owners won’t be deciding between the current boundaries and the expanded boundaries. By forcing a vote eight years early, the Downtown San Francisco Partnership will essentially be starting anew. That means, for the property owners voting on the expansion, the decision will be between all or nothing.
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Commercial
San Francisco
Odd Fellows list historic historic temple in San Francisco for sale
Commercial
San Francisco
Cash-strapped Francis Ford Coppola puts up SF tower as collateral