SF office tower leased to Wells Fargo shopped for sale

A 33-story office tower in San Francisco’s Financial District with a renewed lease by Wells Fargo bank is for sale at an undisclosed price.

Columbia Property Trust and Allianz Real Estate of America, both based in New York, have been quietly shopping the building at 333 Market Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

Columbia paid $395 million for the 622,000-square-foot office building in 2012, and now owns a 55 percent stake, the company said in a presentation to investors last year. It declined to confirm or deny a potential sale.

Also, the building owners haven’t disclosed an asking price.

In June, they may have boosted the building’s value after renewing a lease with Wells Fargo for the entire building for 10 years.

That could be a selling point in a city that has seen construction costs soar as office demand declines in the era of remote work, with few big lease deals signed over the summer.

The city’s office vacancy rate hovers at 22.4 percent as a full return of workers to their offices remains in doubt, according to the Business Times.

The empty desks have challenged owners’ attempts to sell their buildings.

Two properties listed earlier this year – a 13-story, 355,000-square-foot building 550 California Street owned by Wells Fargo and a 374,000-square-foot building at 455 Market Street owned by UBS Realty Investors – were pulled from the market after the sellers got less-than-satisfactory offers.

Wells Fargo, which has announced that it would cut its overall real estate footprint by 7 percent, asked $160 million for 550 California Street, while UBS sought $280 million for 455 Market Street. Bids for both buildings came in far below their projected price tags, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

— Dana Bartholomew

Read more

New York

Wells Fargo backing off mortgage market

San Francisco

Wells Fargo renews on 620K sf for San Francisco HQ