Ian Jacobs Buys Union Square Building for $49 Million

Within the same week that San Francisco’s highly anticipated downtown dead mall redevelopment deal died, the city’s luxury retail sector got a major vote of confidence.

A buyer listed as Delaware corporation Silver Gate Property II LLC, purchased the prominent four-story retail and office building at 180 Post Street for $48.5 million — a little more than $1,200 per square foot — on July 2, according to public documents. The company is an affiliate of Ian Jacobs, the former Warren Buffett protege and scion of Toronto’s Reichmann real estate dynasty, according to a source close to the property.

The 39,000-square-foot commercial space is anchored by a long-term lease with LVMH-owned Italian jeweler Bulgari. The seller, international property group Grosvenor Americas, had owned the building for 30 years.

For Jacobs the purchase is the latest in an extended downtown buying spree. In 2024, Jacobs set up Uris Acquisitions — known as Project Uris — initially as a $75 million investment vehicle aimed at distressed commercial property in downtown San Francisco. The scion’s play echoed his family’s history: the Reichmanns made their fortune during a similar distressed buying spree in 1970s New York City, most notably buying and rehabilitating eight buildings from the Uris Building Corp.

In San Francisco, Jacobs has chipped away at his goal of taking over 3 million square feet of commercial space and he’s had a particular focus around Union Square’s blocks. In May, an affiliate of his firm bought the two-story, roughly 4,000-square-foot building at 118-124 Maiden Lane. In April 2025, he acquired 200 Powell Street for $7.4 million — quickly followed by the purchase of the 21,400-square-foot commercial space at 111 Ellis Street for $7.8 million and another two-story building overlooking the cable car turnaround at 35-41 Powell for $7.5 million.

As Jacobs has grown his portfolio, Grosvenor has whittled down its San Francisco holdings. In February, the firm sold 240 Stockton Street to an affiliate of Doug McMahon, a principal at Moran Capital who has been on a spree of his own. Anchored by Gucci, the 40,000-square-foot building sold for $44 million — which is $1,100 per square foot — a steep loss for Grosvenor who bought the property in 2016 for $80 million. Last year, Grosvenor let go of its six-story commercial property at 251 Post Street to Beverly Hills investor Bijan Chadorchi for $30.5 million.

Despite the hype around the artificial intelligence industry, San Francisco’s shopping district plays a critical role in its recovery. Before the pandemic, it generated 13 percent of the city’s sales tax revenue, according to the Union Square Alliance. Overall vacancy in Union Square fell from 22.8 percent in the second quarter of 2025 to 20 percent for the same period this year according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest market report — with monthly visitors increasing almost 10 percent year over year.

This all points to a Union Square in better shape than a few years ago, when record high vacancy rates kept investors out of the neighborhood. However, recovery has been uneven, and big names continue to come and go. AT&T returned to 1 Post Street, and fashion marketplace The RealReal reopened its flagship shop at 253 Post. Yet, a block away on Post Street, homegrown retailer Williams Sonoma shuttered its three-story location in January, and Saks Global’s bankruptcy meant the closure of Saks Fifth Avenue.

And then there is San Francisco Centre Mall, the 1.2-million-square-foot void at the heart of the city’s retail core. Lenders JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank seized the property last fall, and earlier this year, contracted to sell it to the redevelopment team of Presidio Bay Ventures and the Prado Group for an undisclosed price. The agreement was hailed as the strongest case yet for retail’s return to downtown San Francisco.

But last week, the developers announced they were backing out of the deal. Although Presidio Bay Ventures and the Prado Group didn’t offer a clear reason, some reports blamed tricky negotiations around a long-term ground-lease held by the San Francisco Unified School District. The property will now head back to the market.

“The final arrow in the quiver to show how strong things were going was the mall purchase,” said Cameron Baird, San Francisco retail lead with Kidder Mathews. He said it sparked some movement among investors who were waiting on the sidelines. “It’s a bummer they’re not doing it but I don’t think it’s going to ding the momentum.”