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San Francisco

oWow seeks to boost height of apartment tower in SF’s SoMa — while under construction

Developer uses new state “double density bonus” law to add seven stories, 161 units

oWow's Danny Haber; earlier rendering with 12 stories at 960 Howard Street (Getty, oWow, Crunchbase)
oWow's Danny Haber; earlier rendering with 12 stories at 960 Howard Street (Getty, oWow, Crunchbase)

oWow wants to add seven residential stories to an office and apartment highrise in San Francisco — and get it approved during construction.

The Oakland-based developer is taking advantage of a new state “double density bonus” law to add 161 apartments to the partially built tower at 960 Howard Street, in SoMa, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. 

The project is approved for a three-story office building topped by a nine-story, 113-unit apartment addition.

oWow now seeks to top the offices with 16 stories of housing with 274 apartments, including 42 units of affordable housing. 

The newly revised 19-story building would include 158 studio and 116 two-bedroom apartments. Without the added apartments, the developer says, the project won’t pencil out,

“The approved 113 units will not achieve a product that meets the returns that anybody would want to invest in today to get that project started,” Danny Haber, co-founder and CEO of oWow, told the Chronicle. “It is not financially feasible.”

oWow purchased the site, home to a small industrial building, in 2019 for an undisclosed price. Building heights in the area are capped at 85 feet.

The developer then employed a state density bonus law to boost the height of its proposed project by 50 percent in exchange for affordable housing for very low-income households, raising its approved height to 162 feet.

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Now oWow wants to “supersize” its mass timber development after nearly completing the three-story office component by employing state Assembly Bill 1287, known as the “double density bonus” law.

The state law, enacted last month, allows the initial 50 percent density bonus to be doubled so long as 15 percent of a project’s units are set aside for “middle income” households earning up to 120 percent of the area median income.

“We are kicking in the benefits of the new law to get more units so that we not only get more affordable housing, but hopefully a project that’s ready to go, and that shows that San Francisco is back,” Haber told the Chronicle.

Since AB 1287 went into effect, local developers have revised approved plans to add more density to their projects.

Last week, Newport Beach-based MX3 Ventures employed the double bonus to revise plans for a 11-story, 164-unit apartment tower at 344 14th Street, in the Mission District. An earlier plan called for seven stories with 60 apartments.

Last month, locally based Aralon Properties employed the double bonus to revise plans for a controversial 24-story, 132-unit condominium tower at 955 Sansome Street, on Telegraph Hill. The new plans came after Aralon had submitted revised plans last fall for for a 16-story, 102-unit building that would rise 184 feet. 

— Dana Bartholomew

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Affordable Housingdensity bonusDevelopmentSF multifamily market