San Francisco Planning Commission approves mixed-use project for Central SoMa

The San Francisco Planning Commission approved a new mixed-use project for a site in Central SoMa.

Strada Investment Group submitted the proposal for a 12-story mixed-use building at 490 Brannan Street in the summer of 2020. Though it passed unanimously, it drew concern from some commissioners because of the city’s existing amount of vacant office space, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The development is projected to yield 270,000 square feet of office space, 12,000 square feet of space for local arts organizations and a 120-seat performing arts center. The project also includes a ground-floor childcare center.

Strada founding partner Jesse Blout said he was confident the city can recover from the office market glut.

“As we have seen in past market corrections in San Francisco — whether during the dot-com bust or other times in the market — the city has a remarkable ability to reinvent itself on the fly and recover quickly from downturns,” Blout told the publication.

The project will replace a parking lot and a vacant, boarded-up building that was once a Wells Fargo bank. Its facade will match surrounding buildings and will include terraces that contribute to a “sustainably designed, vertical urban landscape.”

Office investments in the U.S. haven’t recovered from the pandemic as sales volume remains far below 2019. In San Francisco and Washington, D.C., investment sales volume fell 28 percent in the second quarter from the same period in 2019.

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