Priced at $1.93 million, or $1,596 per square foot, in September of 2019, the listing for the brand new two-bedroom, two-bath unit #24C with southwest corner views in the twisty MIRA tower at 280 Spear Street was removed from the MLS in January of 2020.
Listed anew for $1.835 million this past March, the sale of 280 Spear Street #24C has now closed escrow with a contract price of $1.74 million or $1,466 per square foot.
And while $1,466 per square foot certainly isn’t cheap, it’s 9.8 percent or $190,000 cheaper than the pre-pandemic pricing for the new condo, with other units in the building, which were priced relative to each other, having been “adjusted” as well.
When the Mira website went live back in late 2018 / early 2019, the unit prices were running close to $2k/SF, so that’s quite a drop relative to what the developer was initially hoping for.
Love this building’s bold design. No one incorporates bay windows anymore. First time I saw a floorplan here – I appreciate the designers “twist” on bay windows. Pun intended.
I hope the price reductions don’t discourage future developers from thinking outside the box (pun not intended there).
The exterior is beautiful, and I wish they could’ve built taller, as desired – it’d make the twists that much more striking.
But the interiors … that floorplan is not great (particularly the public area) – if furnished as drawn, you’re squeezing by the dining table to access the living area and 2nd bedroom – and even then, where’s the TV? (As much as one might detest TVs or be holier-than-thou about them, most people will want to have them…) It also leaves very little wall space for art in the public areas.
I also despise bathrooms without a window (for natural light as well as ventilation), but I recognize I’m jousting at windmills on that one, as far as modern buildings and layouts go…
I too like the look of the exterior but have my own specific issues with the otherwise interesting interiors;
I have a large book collection which is important to me, but the only long stretch of wall for shelves in the entire unit is where the bed needs to be in the main bedroom.
A similar situation in trying to fit in a large flat screen TV.
No place for the cat’s litter box. Regarding this, I am familiar with residential buildings in Portland, and units of this size and quality (relative to vastly different square foot costs) seem to often include large walk in laundry/utility rooms, otherwise known as the cat’s room.
Rising interest rates are going to take a huge bite out of the value condos in luxury buildings with princely HOA fees, like this one. It won’t pencil out for either an investor, or a first time home buyer who could rent a comparable unit for less than what the monthly payment on this unit would be without having to liquidate a huge chunk of thier savings as a down payment. 30 year mortgage, 20% down @ 5% interest = $7,473 per month, plus property taxes and HOA fees at a minimum of $1,300 – at that point you are looking at a monthly payment of above $10K per month. You can rent a spacious 2 BR flat in Russian Hill or Cow Hollow for less, or even a single family house in almost any other neighborhood.
The downward pressure on prices will continue and be especially felt in these SOMA towers. Rising interest rates and construction costs and a shrinking pool of potential buyers does not bode well. On the latter, foot traffic into SF office towers is still below 40%. That group, downtown office workers, is more and more the target buyer for these towers. The units make no sense to investors who previously had been a significant source of buyers.
Other areas of SF will not see as much downward pressure but even outside SOMA developments are being put on hold (Pier 72) or abandoned with the entitlement put on the market as just happened with the 300-unit CPMC housing development at 3700 California.
Do tell about 3700 California…
The neighbors (myself included) have been searching for details about what exactly is happening. Thanks!
From the SF Business Times, the parcel was put up for sale by Sutter last Tuesday.
“About two years after the San Francisco Planning Commission unanimously approved the redevelopment of the 5-acre California Pacific Medical Center campus at 3700 California St., the site hit the market on Tuesday.”
Thanks!
I’m disappointed this is not a Lumina take-down. Really off-brand here.
This building will not age well. Those floor plans also are a hot mess…
Unfortunately, more interesting/different the architecture (from the outside) is, the harder it is to build, and more likely for construction faults.
So I suspect this building unfortunately will have a lot more problems around leakage, or various issues that more “boring” buildings won’t have.