Will THIS $1B Downtown Makeover SAVE SAN FRANCISCO?

For over 50 years, the Transamerica Pyramid has been a symbol of the city of San Francisco and an anchor of its downtown skyline. And since it was purchased at the beginning of the pandemic for $650 million by one of the world's most prolific developers, it is now a symbol of the revitalization of San Francisco's downtown. And it's not just the Transamerica Pyramid. The entire block is getting a complete overhaul by the developer, and investors and developers across the city are taking cue and making multimillion-dollar bets to bring San Francisco back. I'm Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County. I moved here from Orange County over a decade ago to work as a lawyer just down the street from where I'm filming right now, and I saw firsthand the change of San Francisco's downtown area from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic. But unlike a lot of the headlines and internet trolls, I am bullish on the return and revitalization of San Francisco. And in this video, I'm going to break down all the developments coming to the downtown area and major commercial areas of San Francisco and what it means for the city. Let's get right to it. There are two sides to San Francisco's revitalization. The first is all the development that's going on in the major commercial corridors of the city and in new areas of the city that previously were historically industrial and not really available for public use. The second is more policy-based, what the city is doing to bring businesses and foot traffic back to downtown and these major city centers. When the pandemic hit and remote work really took off, people fled the high-cost city of San Francisco into areas that are less expensive to live in because they didn't have to live right next to downtown anymore or within a short commute of downtown. Live in much less expensive areas, get more land for their money or more house for their money, and work remotely. And that created a ripple effect across almost every major business and business sector in San Francisco, from things like public transportation, activation of public space, retail, restaurants, bars, you name it. Everything was impacted by the pandemic, and it turned a good portion of the once, you know, busier, more business-focused areas of San Francisco, like downtown and SoMa areas, into more of a ghost town. Not as much foot traffic anymore, especially during the week. But there's so much development going on across the city in the hopes of reversing that trend and bringing businesses and workers back. And the most noteworthy of them all is what's going on with the Transamerica Pyramid. The iconic 48-story tower was purchased by Schvo in October of 2020 for $650 million, and they're investing over $1 billion in total to rejuvenate not just the Transamerica Pyramid itself, but the entire surrounding neighborhood. Goal of the project is to turn it into a true luxury property. If you know anything about Michael Schvo and Schvo's development properties, you know that he's all about creating super, super luxurious hospitality spaces. And he's bringing that concept to the office with the hope of attracting workers back to the office. One of the world's preeminent architecture firms, Foster and Partners, is leading the design with a focus on public spaces, office interiors, and they're even bringing a 45,000-square-foot social club. In addition to the building itself, the unused street next to it, Mark Twain Street, is going to be turned into a tree-lined pathway lined with shops leading to the beautiful Redwood Park. Schwoz is also looking to renovate a building right next to Transamerica Pyramid, a 9-story building. He's looking to expand it by 6 floors. And all of these grand plans and luxurious spaces that he's creating seems to be doing the trick because he's already signed multiple office leases for the new space at rent rates that we haven't even seen outside of New York. And he's not the only one seeing success. While office vacancies have skyrocketed and rent rates have fallen in the broader San Francisco, there's a subset of Class A trophy properties with beautiful spaces and 360-degree views, buildings like 101 California, 555 California, that haven't fallen victim to those trends. And other developers are following suit. For example, Presidio Bay Ventures just bought an 11-story, 56-year-old office building and plans to spend another $50 million renovating the 157,000 square foot space. And just like with Shro's Transamerica Pyramid, the goal is to create something that is way different than your run-of-the-mill office. The goal of this developer is to bring the first office resort to the country in this space. Think things like rooftop bar, restaurants, fitness center, spa, all the things that you would expect in a luxury hotel, but in an office space. And there are several other new developments in the area that will each contribute to reshaping the downtown landscape. Just a few examples. The Bank at Amador is opening down the street from the Transamerica Pyramid. It's going to be a members-only social club occupying the top 2 floors of the historic Bank of Italy building. The beautifully finished club is going to feature private parlor rooms, billiard room, whiskey tasting room, and its own wine cave and rooftop lounge. And that's not even scratching the surface of what else is coming to other areas near the tech hubs of San Francisco. For example, 3 mixed-use projects along the Central Waterfront are bringing thousands of new housing units, retail, office spaces, —parks. The first of those three developments is Mission Rock. The San Francisco Giants, together with Tishman Speyer, are transforming what used to be a parking lot area into a beautiful new mixed-use community with thousands of new housing units and open park spaces. The second of those, a few blocks away from there, is Pier 70. Brookfield Partners, together with the Port of San Francisco, is transforming a formerly historic industrial waterfront site into a mixed-use community. Similar vibe as Mission Rock, a ton of new housing and open public spaces. A couple of the buildings there are already open. And just down the street from Pier 70 is the third of those mixed-use communities, the Potrero Power Station being developed by Associate Capital. They're taking a now defunct power station and turning it into a similar mixed-use community with new housing, park spaces, office, retail, hotels, you name it. I've got a whole separate video about each of those developments. I'll link that at the top of the description below. If you're curious and you want to learn more about what's going on in those areas, definitely check it out. And make sure to subscribe to my channel 'cause I make videos all the time about all the new development coming to San Francisco. Now, aside from the physical changes coming to the downtown landscape, a lot of the change is coming from policy. The mayor's office and local lawmakers are working tirelessly to advance key policies that will make the area more hospitable and more desirable for people returning both to live and work. Things like enhancing public safety presence, implementing street vending regulations, increasing parking security, expanding cleaning crews, refurbishing downtown's transit platforms to make them more welcoming and usable. Making downtown cleaner and safer is really the key to driving people back. Combined with these new spaces. Public perception about the area, in my opinion, is way over the top. You can see just walking the streets of downtown, it's actually a lot cleaner than people would think. Part of that is because so many people don't visit the area anymore. It's a lot less trafficked. But the media loves hating all over San Francisco, and like it or not, public perception is truth in today's world. So everything possible needs to be done to change public perception and get people to come back to work here and revitalize the area. There's also a huge effort to push forward legislation and policy changes that will make building less expensive and faster so we can get much-needed new housing supply in the area. Things like tax breaks for new development, eliminating permitting processes for certain types of housing projects that take way too long, streamlining approvals for converting vacant office space into residential space, reducing the extent to which neighbors can object to projects that have already been approved or even during the approval process, and removing cumbersome design review processes for new development that otherwise complies with building codes. There's so much being invested in San Francisco right now, both from a political standpoint and industrial standpoint. I'm personally really excited to see these vacant office buildings be converted into beautiful new living spaces or beautiful new office spaces, underutilized office spaces being turned into brand new luxury amenity spaces. All the different and creative ways we get businesses and people back to the downtown. We've got so many AI companies moving here, bringing so many new workers here. We have a ton of VC money being poured into companies here. It's going to change. It's going to come back from what it is right now, but it's going to take time. Of course, I'll be keeping tabs on all the things that are changing, so make sure to subscribe to my channel to stay up to date on all things going on with the city. And if you're relocating to the city, maybe your job is bringing you back to the office, or you got a new gig in AI and want to be closer to the action, but you're having trouble figuring out what the right neighborhood is for you or where it makes the most sense to live based on your new job, definitely reach out to me. My contact info is in the description below. I first moved to San Francisco over a decade ago without really knowing much about the area, so— Hello. I know how scary it can be moving to a new area, not knowing much about what's going on and having trouble finding a place to live. And if you want to know more about which neighborhoods might be a good fit for you, if you're moving here for a new AI job or tech job, check the link in the description below. I made a video about exactly where to live if you've got one of those jobs. And don't forget to check out that one that I made about all the new mixed-use communities coming to the Central Waterfront, because I think that area is going to boom. And I go over in that video exactly why. Hope you enjoy them and I'll see you in the next video.