82-84 First Street Site

When the Stanford Hotels Group paid over $2,000 per square foot for the two little buildings at 82-84 First and 510 Mission, building’s which sit on a slender T-shaped site across from the future Salesforce Tower and Transbay Transit Center, speculation ran rampant as to the group’s intent.

While the footprint is modest, the T-shaped site sits in the middle of the Transbay District’s penultimate development site – 50 First Street – upon which the 910-foot tower designed by Foster + Partners is slated to rise along with a 600-foot tower designed by Heller Manus fronting Mission.

50 First Street Design

The leading theory at the time of Stanford’s purchase was that the group was positioning for a payday from TMG Partners, the then developer of 50 First Street, gambling that TMG would feel compelled to pay an even higher premium for the site in order to protect their project.

But TMG didn’t bite and has since sold the 50 First Street project to Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings.

And as we’ve roughly rendered below, Stanford Hotels has now submitted plans for a slender 24-story building, with 42 condos over 365 square feet of retail space, to rise upon their T-shaped site.

82-84 First Street Massing

The proposed development would wrap around the historic building on the northwest corner of First and Mission and block the views and vistas of the first 255 feet of the two 50 First Street towers.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that the Stanford Hotels’ proposal is simply an upping of the ante and intended to force Oceanwide’s hand.  But if not and the project is approved, the northwest corner of First and Mission could sprout a jumble of three towers rather than two.

19 thoughts on “Slender Building Could Block SF’s Penultimate Tower Views”
  1. “Of course, it’s entirely possible that the Stanford Hotels’ proposal is simply an upping of the ante and intended to force Oceanwide’s hand”

    Yea, almost assuredly.

  2. Four massive property line walls with no windows 24-stories tall that doesn’t comply with a whole host of key zoning controls about light and air and whatnot. What’s not serious about that?

  3. Won’t the Fremont/Mission tower block a lot of views from one of thsee towers at least. With the construction further south on Howard and all won’t that too block a lot of the views from the lower 20 or 30 floors of the new towers?

    1. Agreed, there are plenty of similarly sized towers around that will block the lower views of Fremont/Mission, while contrawise the views from this “T” would be pretty much nonexistent (thanks to the same surrounding phalanx).

  4. Who would want to stay in a hotel with views of nothing but blank walls? That means 60-70% of the rooms in this T-building would be unrentable. They wouldn’t do that. I say blackmail works both ways. I also think if anybody can play this game it’s the Chinese. I look forward to a see/raise.

    1. im pretty sure this will have windows:)

      in a dense district like this, why would we expect buildings to keep their views.?

  5. I still say the “fatty deal” (arced facade silhouette lines), next to the Salesforce Tower, looks like the Laurel and Hardy show.

  6. historic building on the corner? that looks basically identical to what was deleted on the corner of fremont and mission for the ‘smaller’ salesforce building, and is basically the same as many other similar buildings deleted over the last few years for glass towers under construction nearby. Unless someone in city hall is particularly attached to the Portico on the first floor…

    1. Yes, we must make sure that the New San Francisco looks as much like Houston as we can. No old buildings!!!!!!!!!

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