SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — San Francisco’s skyline is poised for a repositioning, with a proposal to build the tallest skyscraper on the west coast in the heart of downtown.
“This is going to be the biggest tower in the western United States. This is a big deal. And it’s great for the neighborhood. It’s great for our city and I couldn’t be more excited,” San Francisco Supervisor Matt Dorsey said.
Supervisor Matt Dorsey is talking about a developer’s desire to transform this entire block where the PG&E headquarters sat on Beale street.
The Hines company on Friday submitted an application that included building a more than 1,200-foot-tall skyscraper.
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“Hines is one of the nation’s, actually one of the world’s biggest, privately held residential and commercial developers,” Supervisor Dorsey said. “And when they hit big city like San Francisco, I can tell you right now, the worldwide capital markets are taking notice today.”
The proposed office building would eclipse both the Transamerica Pyramid and Salesforce Tower, but the city is quick to point out it’s about more than the skyscraper itself – other uses and other buildings will also be in the mix.
“This is proposing to bring a lot of brand new office space, but also to bring residential units, to bring new retail, new open space, and entertainment amenities,” said Leigh Lutenski, director of development, San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.
San Francisco has a lot of office space to spare, with the vacancy rate still hovering around 35%.
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Still, the city says new, luxury offices are sought after within the tech industry.
“We are actually seeing a lot of demand for office space in the sort of in new product in the higher end of the market, the top tier Class-A space, there is a significant demand,” Lutenski said. “And with the growth of AI as a sector here, a lot of companies are trying to locate here and they want that type of product.
As for all that vacant office space…
“We have a host of efforts underway to see what we can do to convert those again to more residential uses, more multi-use spaces, more experiential use spaces, because we need more of everything,” Lutenski said. “And so we’re trying to attack it from both ends.”
The city says it’s typically a one to two year process to get the permissions and planning on the skyscraper development – a process they say has now begun.
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