CIM Group Lists San Francisco Office Buildings

CIM Group has listed a two-building office complex in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood.

The 179,000-square-foot property at 330 and 340 Townsend Street is on the market with an undisclosed pricing guidance, the San Francisco Business Times reported. Los Angeles-based CIM Group bought the buildings in 2013 for $30 million, according to property records cited by the Business Times.

The complex is 95 percent occupied across both buildings. Most of 330 Townsend is leased to coworking provider Codi, while 340 Townsend is 100 percent leased to AMFM Broadcasting, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. That lease is slated to expire in December 2028.

CIM’s Townsend Street complex is located within the Central SoMa Plan area, a part of the city that was rezoned in 2016 from industrial uses to accommodate high-rise office, residential and commercial buildings. Developers like Kilroy Realty and Alexandria Real Estate Equities have flocked to the neighborhood in the decade since, according to the Business Times, though much of that development activity has been on hold as builders face elevated construction costs and office vacancy rates across the city. Last year, officials passed legislation allowing those megaproject developers to incorporate more housing into their projects and removed office space requirements.

In 2016, CIM proposed demolishing the 330 Townsend building and replacing it with a 374-unit residential tower rising 31 stories to take advantage of the new zoning. The developer previously floated a 26-story office tower at the site in 2014.

Several megaprojects from major developers have been proposed for the area surrounding 330 and 340 Townsend. Prologis is moving forward with plans to build 2,500 homes and 4 million square feet of commercial space across the street at the Caltrain Railyards site. Kilroy Realty is exploring various redevelopment options for the San Francisco Flower Market site. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, meanwhile, is searching for a buyer for the 88 Bluxome Street site, which has already been entitled for both a roughly 1-million-square-foot commercial project and a 1,500-unit residential development.

— Chris Malone Méndez