Purchased for $930,000 in March of 2016, the 953-square-foot unit #101 in the historic Heublein building at 601 4th Street, across the street from a new Central Subway stop at the intersection of Brannan, returned to the market listed for $995,000 at the end of February, configured as a one-bedroom with one bath, a shared roof deck and a deeded parking space in the garage.

While a new backsplash in the kitchen yields a strikingly simple improvement (see gallery above), the unit appears to have been otherwise unimproved over the past three years.

And having just closed escrow with an “at asking” contract price of $995,000, or roughly $1,044 per square foot, the sale represents total apples-to-apples appreciation of 7.0 percent for the Central SoMa unit over the past three years (roughly 2.2 percent per year on a straight-line basis).

Holliday Development’s conversion of the Heublein Building from a onetime wine distributorship and warehouse back in 1991 marked the first major commercial-turned-residential development in San Francisco.

8 thoughts on “Appreciation for a Historic Heublein Building Loft”
  1. Holliday has done some awesome work in San Francisco (Clock Tower) and across the bay in Oakland (Pacific Cannery Lofts). But I haven’t noticed much from them lately.

  2. Holliday was (still is, I assume) the developer of the Intersection on the E’ville/Oakland border, which our resident arsonist(s) got twice, 2 years running. After an article saying they were thinking of offsite/modular to start it up again, I haven’t seen much in the news or at the site. I think it’s been 2 years since the last fire. Would love to see it completed.

  3. If I live here and sleep in the loft, if I need to take a leak in the middle of the night I have to walk down a flight of stairs. I don’t know many people who would enjoy this.

    1. Looks like you have to, the kitchen sink is tucked in under the balcony. Strange oversight. Still that feature is the same as when it first sold. Time to bring back the chamberpot.

      1. Dollars-to-donuts the downstairs bathroom is a ceiling height issue. Standards for lofts may be relaxed, but a formal bathroom (I believe) would have required 8′ ceilings at the time this was constructed. I think that standard has been relaxed to 7.5′ in the latest code.

        Holliday now runs FactoryOS, a modular construction production company in Vallejo. I believe he has signed several projects already. They are utilizing what was to be the Blu Homes factory, before Blu Homes took the dirt nap. FactoryOS uses exclusively carpeneter’s union labor (even to run pipes and wires) and it is a happy partnership in that the union has a good place to send people to work, Holliday & co. have to worry less about staffing, and they can market themselves as prevailing wage providers for subsidized (i.e. affordable) projects.

        I did not meet Holliday personally but heard him speak on a FactoryOS tour. My suspicion is that the value – add for Factory OS is as much the intersection of politically-palatable labor offerings + scale. He seems like a sharp guy on the cultural angles as much as the construction ones. David Baker is on their masthead now too, so there will be lots of connections for affordable housing development.

        Leave it to the rich old white guys to find a wedge into the housing crisis, amirite?

        1. Whoa there !! I think you’re confusing Cali w/ Brobdingnagia : “Kitchens, halls, bathrooms and toilet compartments may have a ceiling height of not less than 7 feet measured to the lowest projection from the ceiling” per the 1988 UBC (pp 96).

          It’s possible. of course SF had some more stringent regulation – what do I know? I’m only 2/3 of being a rich old white guy (won’t say which 2), but I doubt it.

          1. Okay – maybe so. Would also be awkward to send your guests up to your boudoir for relief if the low height bathroom was upstairs.

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