Brookfield's 5M Office Portion Slated For 2021 Finish
Brookfield Properties' long-awaited mixed-use SoMa development, which in June broke ground after a decade-long wait, was never meant to be conventional. Its office component is no exception.
Along with 800 new homes, 50K SF of open space and $76M in public benefits, 5M (as it is called for Fifth and Mission) will bring San Francisco's SoMa area 641K SF of office inventory via a KPF-designed 25-story office building.
The high-rise, coming to 415 Natoma St., is expected as soon as Q1 2021, Brookfield Properties Senior Manager of Development Cutter MacLeod told Bisnow. And given San Francisco's tight office market, earlier is better for real estate-hungry tenants.
"If you look at the landscape of other developments in San Francisco, we're the only ground-up large office building that can deliver prior to 2022," said MacLeod, a panelist at Bisnow's Bay Area State of Office event Sept. 26.
Other than Oceanwide Center, which is slated to open in 2023, most big-block space in the city is spoken for. Pinterest (at 88 Bluxome St.) and Salesforce (at 550 Howard St.) are two tech tenants that even pre-leased once unapproved space.
In this market, new office developments in San Francisco deliver, on average, 97% leased, according to MacLeod, and Brookfield has designed 5M with intent to follow suit.
With designs like floor-to-floor heights of 14 feet to 15 feet, the entire building is pre-engineered for a wide spectrum of large tenants from which Brookfield has received interest, according to MacLeod.
"We've seen a strong mix of tenant demand, all the way from mid-stage tech to Fortune 100 companies," he said.
Floors one to 10 of 415 Natoma will have an average floor plate size of 36K SF, with a 10th-floor, 14K SF terrace large enough for 344 people. Above that, the high-rise will feature 20K SF floor plates, and a 25th-floor, 10K SF terrace that will give future occupants a 360-degree view of San Francisco.
"What kind of outdoor space you can provide is something tenants are really driving at," MacLeod said. "If you've ever been on the 25th floor of a building in San Francisco, typically you're in a CBD, surrounded by other buildings and with a Manhattan-like view."
The high-rise will also have dual lobbies designed by San Francisco-based IwamotoScott Architecture: a public, "hospitality-driven" lobby with a coffee bar, a food and beverage operator and plenty of soft-seating, and a roughly 2,200 SF private lobby offered to the building's anchor tenant.
Brookfield is designing for the lobby space to fit into the rest of the "micro-neighborhood" it sees itself creating, MacLeod said. The corner opening of 415 Natoma St. will often have open doors to adjacent Mary Court, half an acre of privately owned and programmed public open space.
San Francisco architect SITELAB urban studio designed the master plan for the project.
Nearby, the historic Camelline and Dempster buildings will also be revitalized in the first phase of 5M and repurposed for arts and cultural uses, as well as more ground-floor retail. Concurrent with the development of office at 415 Natoma are the 302 units Brookfield is constructing at 434 Minna.
In subsequent phases of 5M, Brookfield's development partner, Hearst Corp., will both renovate the historic Chronicle Building, including adding a public rooftop park to it, and build an already approved 400-unit condominium building on the corner of Fifth and Mission.
Although Hearst has yet to announce a timeline for its part in the project, Brookfield — after a decade-long wait and tightened S.F. office market — said it is glad to have broken ground.
"We're coming out of the ground at a great time for the market, and Brookfield really has the resources and expertise to deliver a trophy asset in this market," MacLeod said.
CORRECTION, September 24, 8:39 A.M. PT: A previous version of this story misstated the private lobby size of 415 Natoma St. It will be roughly 2,200 SF. The story has been updated.
