See the “Doom Spiral” bar in a San Francisco ad agency’s new office

Low rent in a historic building inspires decor that speaks to “ridiculous obits” for the city

Emily Landes

May 9, 2024, 6:18 PM

Not everyone at Duncan Channon was immediately sold on the name for the centerpiece bar in its new North Financial District office: The Doom Spiral.

Some felt that people would think the advertising agency was making fun of the empty downtown storefronts and half-filled office towers that have led others to coin the term about San Francisco’s prospects, according to Parker Channon, a partner at the firm. Mocking the sad street conditions in the city would be an especially bad look for the company, as last year it signed on to run a two-year $40 million opioid overdose education and prevention campaign for the California Department of Public Health.

While giving TRD a sneak preview of the space, Channon clarified that the name is meant to inspire pity not for the city’s current fortunes, but for those who would count it down and out.

There are real problems, he said. But calling the brass-topped circular wood bar in the middle of the firm’s new 6,000-square-foot office on the 10th floor of 22 Battery “The Doom Spiral” is a direct response to the “dopey” down-and-out narrative and “ridiculous obits for San Francisco” that have played out in the media since the pandemic, he said.

“We’re making fun of the people who are writing the city off,” he said.

Economic relocation

In the 1990s, San Francisco was known as the place that the coolest ad agencies in the country called home, he said, which is why he wanted to be part of it.

“The most interesting, innovative, fun, funny, challenging, edgy work was here,” he said.

Channon admits that many of his fellow ad agency heads have closed their San Francisco offices or closed down altogether since then. But he never really considered a move outside the city.

But the ad agency could not come to satisfactory terms on a lease extension at 114 Sansome Street, its home for the last 15 years. Plus, with no mandatory in-office policy for employees the firm no longer needs the 10,000 square feet that it took up in the Deka Immobilien-owned building, Channon said. He estimates that of Duncan Channon’s approximately 80 San Francisco employees, about 15 to 20 percent come into the office on their own regularly. It also has a smaller office in Los Angeles that focuses on experiential campaigns that goes up and down in size depending on whether it has an event, he said.

When the company started looking for its new right-sized space, it found a bevy of choices and Channon almost couldn’t believe his ears when he heard the rent the agents for 22 Battery were offering for the 10th floor.

“I thought I heard the price wrong when the guy said it and I was still ready to go at the price that I misheard,” he said.

He wouldn’t reveal what the agency is paying on the five-year lease, but said it’s about one-third the rent the company had been paying around the corner.

Hans Hanson at Starboard CRE represented the building’s owner, and said it has leased the century-old building in the low $30s per square foot range. The ownership has no debt on the building, no plans to sell the property they have owned since 1979, and is “one of the richest families in the Philippines,” he said. Property records show the building is owned by Nevada-based Dateline Properties, which is also the longtime owner of 98 Battery, and is managed locally by Elaine Tycangco.

As the owner is not beholden to investors or the market, Hanson said, the ownership decided it would rather see the buildings filled than hold out for higher rents. 22 Battery also recently scored the new downtown location of beloved Berkeley-based Boichik Bagels and 98 Battery will be the new outpost for “secret recipe” Vietnamese seafood restaurant Crustacean, indicating their retail rates are designed to be similarly attractive.

“The beauty of these guys is they can cut to the bone on rent to attract,” he said, adding that this tactic has brought 22 Battery from 60 percent vacant to 90 percent occupied. “It really is one of the best deals you’ll find by $3 to $5 per square foot over the competition.”

Full floor decor

The 10th and 11th floors are the only full-floor suites in the building and had previously been occupied by RiskIQ before the cyber security company was bought in 2021 by Microsoft. It vacated the building when the term was up last year. The floors needed minimal tenant improvements and were only empty for a few months before they turned over, Hanson said, adding that the 11th floor was also snapped up last summer, around the same time Duncan Channon signed on the 10th.

Channon said that, in addition to the low rent, the character and history of the building was a major selling point. At 22 Battery, which was designed by Grace Cathedral architect Lewis Hobart for the Postal Telegraph Company in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, the company got the 20-foot ceilings, brick walls, wood floors and large, curved operable windows he was craving.

There were minimal improvement dollars needed in the new space. The company painted the elevator vestibule and several accent walls a teal color Channon called “doom blue,” and of course added the new bar, which was crafted by a local carpenter inspired by a “tony-feeling” London bar. A crashed Muni bus illustration, created by local illustrator Kid Markie and inspired by the cover of the Beastie Boys 1986 album, “Licensed to Ill,” and an antique chandelier complete the look.

Duncan Channon also had a bar in its previous office; it was called The Tip because it was at the top of the building. In both cases, the bar is not “just for getting drunk,” he said, but is also for coffee, lunches and client visits.

“It’s a place to socialize, relax, hang out and grow tighter with the people you have to work with every day, “ he said. “A place people want to come even if you don’t make them.”

Many clients and competitors who visited the Tip will now descend on the Spiral. The company is unveiling its new office to the local ad industry this week with a party that includes a Doom Spiral Muni bus photo op.

After they sent out the invite, RSVPs came flooding in and the event filled up within hours, Channon said, which surprised him given that so many ad companies have left town.

It also told him the agency was on the right track with the “Doom Spiral” name.

“We definitely got a rah-rah response,” he said. “People who live here are tired of a story that doesn’t seem true.”

San Francisco