Purchased for $2,486,500 in December of 2018, the 1,400-square-foot unit #6C at 288 Pacific Avenue, a luxurious “modern oasis…ideally situated on the 6th floor of an architectural masterpiece,” with 24/7 front desk staff for security and convenience, across the street from The Battery in San Francisco’s historic and vibrant Jackson Square neighborhood, returned to the market priced at $2,380,000 last year.
The light-filled two-bedroom, two-bath unit with parking features “chic finishes,” “classic lines,” and a “brilliant floor plan,” with an entry foyer, great room, separated bedrooms and balcony.
And having been relisted anew for $2,380,000 last month, 288 Pacific Avenue #6C now features a new price of $2,155,000 as well, a sale at which would be “at asking” according to all industry stats and aggregate reports but would represent a 13.3 percent drop in value for the high-end unit on an apples-to-apples basis.
If you think you know the market for masterfully designed modern units in one of San Francisco’s most established and desirable neighborhoods, now’s the time to tell.
This is a 33 unit building which has another tiny unit (#2E) that has been showcased by Socketsite before. The HOA fees are huge. I wonder how long the 24/7 doorman concept will stick around in buildings this size, esp with interest rates likely staying higher for a while and thus all-in payments higher. Frankly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Have a doorman between 8AM and 6PM, I guess, to handle packages, movers, maintenance etc. But having someone sit there all night is not a good use of money. This is a newly constructed building, I’m sure they have all of the badging systems and cameras they need.
This unit is at least worthy of being a primary residence with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
That other unit, (still on the market and now asking 0.72 percent less than when it was last featured here) is a studio, and marketed as a “perfect SF pied-a-terre”. I don’t know who the intended audience for that kind of pied-a-terre is in this day and age of Zoom. If you feel the need to hob nob with rich and powerful people who are members of The Battery in person from time to time, well the obvious solution would be to book one of the 14 suites at that club’s in-house luxury boutique hotel when you need to, and skip paying to keep an apartment in this building vacant for most of the time.
This probably will not close in the space of the thirty days following the change of asking price.
I think these kind of PATs are suitable for wealthy older people who have primary residences elsewhere (e.g. Wine Country) or multiple homes throughout the country and just need a tony place to crash for a few weeks here and there.
Ask yourself how many times you tailgated after someone (or had a delivery driver tailgate you) in a building with a badging system / camera system. Bank ATMs have a badging system and there are homeless people sleeping inside them all the time.
And? That’s step one. That person should still need to badge up to open the elevator, once inside the elevator badge to the correct floor (floor-specific badge) and then badge into an apartment.
Between 6p-8a is precisely when a doorman is needed in SoMa. Private security too. There are buildings clustered together that have been sharing the cost of the latter. For years.
This isn’t Soma. This is Jackson Square.
Jackson Square residents evidently are indeed concerned about building and personal safety, just as SoMa residents, Hence the necessity of a 24 hour doorman, and willingness to fund.
That doesn’t detract from the fact that this isn’t SoMa, as you originally stated. I’d argue you’re a lot less likely to run into problems in Jackson Square than you are SoMa.
If you have the money to blow nearly 16k a month for something that looks like a glorified apartment with zero view and almost zero private outdoor space then more power to you.
At least it’s on the sixth floor. And the person who ultimately purchases this unit will have equity (as long as the value doesn’t decline during their ownership, which could happen), and so I don’t fully agree they will just be blowing their money.
There are three units, all on lower floors, that are available for rent to people who really want to demonstrate they have the money to blow, including the fully-furnished unit 2H currently on the rental market asking a whopping $11,000 per month. Anyway, as far as residential units for sale, there’s not much inventory available in Jackson Square in general.
Both The Chronicle and The Examiner have reported over the past week that Sir Jonathan Ive just dropped $1,695 per ft.² on commercial property in the area, adding to a collection of buildings Ive’s company has assembled over the last three years. Perhaps the listing agent for Unit 6C (or unit 2E) should give his people a call.
The WIC is almost the size of the second BR. I guess, tho, in an apartment you don’t have a cellar or attic so it serves as a de facto storage space for the whole unit. Still, when you think about it as “I paid $200,000 for my closet”…(shakes head) ….a strong incentive to be more selctive in what you keep.
UPDATE: Despite reports of a “surging” market, the list price for 288 Pacific Avenue #6C has just been further reduced by $205,000 to $1,950,000, an “at asking” sale at which would now represent a 21.6 percent drop in value for the luxury unit on an apples-to-apples basis.
I wound up being correct that Unit 6C wouldn’t close in the thirty days following the Feb 2024 asking price reduction to $2.155 million. In fact, a subsequent reduction in asking price to $1.950 million almost three months afterwards was necessary to get close to the successful closing price of $1.850 million, or 5.1 percent under asking, fifty-seven days later.
That closing price represents an astonishing 25.6 percent decrease in value for the high-end Jackson Square-located two-bedroom, two-bath unit on an apples-to-apples basis over the roughly five and a half-years since the above-mentioned pre-pandemic sale (or a gross decline of about $9,644 per month over the roughly sixty-six month holding period, assuming a straight line). Still, that loss is less than the monthly amount Unit 4D, a two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom 1,485 ft.² unit in the same building and located on a lower floor is currently on the rental market for at $9,750 per month.