Strada Buys SKS-Built Offices Home to Samsara

Strada Investment Group has bought a Showplace Square office building in a vote of confidence for San Francisco’s ongoing post-pandemic recovery.

The locally based investor closed on a deal to acquire 1 De Haro Street for $103 million, or about $771 per square foot, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The seller was SKS Partners, which delivered the 133,427-square-foot building in 2021.

The four-story structure is fully leased to wireless networking company Samsara, which has its global headquarters in the building. SKS broke ground on the property in 2019 and secured Samsara as a tenant for an 86,000-square-foot pre-lease later that year. The company has since grown to occupy the entire building.

Strada worked with an institutional pension fund capital partner for the transaction, a source familiar with the deal told the Business Times. SKS listed 1 De Haro Street for sale in February and entered discussions with Strada to acquire the property shortly thereafter.

The property is somewhat of a unicorn in the current San Francisco office landscape, as only a few fully leased office properties generating revenue as expected have come to market and successfully found a buyer. Many of the buildings that have sold in recent years have had high vacancy rates or faced near-term challenges such as expiring leases or revenue shortfalls, including 550 California Street, 350 California Street and 60 Spear Street.

Investor sentiment appears to be turning around as more see the opportunity in San Francisco’s recovering office sector. In the first quarter of this year alone, the city recorded three of the largest office sales in years, including Yoda PLC’s $691.6 million purchase of the Transamerica Pyramid and two adjacent buildings. That deal placed the 750,000-square-foot complex’s value at $922 per square foot.

Strada has been leading the way in investing in San Francisco in the post-pandemic years. In early 2024, it acquired the 255,000-square-foot office building at 201 Spear Street for nearly $67.3 million. The firm has also been active in the multifamily sector, delivering two apartment projects in South of Market known as Quincy and The Brady, working with Alexandria Real Estate Equities to entitle a Central SoMa site for 1,500 apartments and advancing a large residential effort at Piers 30-32.

— Chris Malone Méndez