Anchor Pacific nabs block-size property in SF’s North Beach for $26M

Anchor Pacific Capital and a family office have purchased an 87,000-square-foot shopping center and a 72-unit apartment complex in San Francisco’s North Beach for $25.8 million.

The San Jose-based investor led by Anton Qiu teamed up with the unidentified family office to buy the NorthPoint Centre at 350 Bay Street, and the NorthPoint Vistas housing complex at 2351 Powell Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The seller was Northpoint Investors, based in San Jose.

The apartment complex and largely vacant retail center take up a city block bounded by North Point, Powell, Bay and Mason streets, near Fisherman’s Wharf. It includes a parking garage for 350 cars.

Qiu said Anchor Pacific and its business partner acquired the shopping center and residential units at a “significant discount to replacement cost.” 

The deal values the shopping center at $95 per square foot and the apartments at $243,000 per unit, according to an unidentified source with direct knowledge of the sale.

Northpoint Investors said it had listed the shopping center and apartments this spring after longtime grocery tenant Safeway announced it would move out.

Brokers Jeffrey Weber, Quynh Le, Cooper Engst and Alicia Mueller of Eastdil Secured represented Northpoint Investors in the sale.

While the shopping center once had a Safeway, Walgreens, RadioShack and H&R Block, it’s now 88 percent vacant, Qiu said.

The mostly vacant shopping center prompted speculation a new buyer would want to redevelop it, which Supervisor Aaron Peskin, whose district includes the property, said he would support, as long as it was “done right,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

But Qiu said Anchor Pacific, which owns or manages 1.2 million square feet of commercial buildings across Northern California, doesn’t have a redevelopment plan in the works.

“Our goal right now is to try and stabilize the center, to try to land another supermarket to activate the center for the neighborhood and Fisherman’s Wharf,” Qiu told the Business Times. “We’re very long term on this.

“It needs a lot of work, but we’re willing to put in more capital to make it work.”

Qiu said he’s in talks with three grocers interested in moving into the NorthPoint Centre, which he declined to name. Last spring, Grocery Outlet Bargain Market wanted to take over Safeway’s former store at the mall, according to the San Francisco Standard.

— Dana Bartholomew

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