New Plans In for Vacant Financial Dist. Sites

Development applications have been filed for two undeveloped sites in the heart of San Francisco’s Financial District. Shorenstein Co. has filed applications to build office structures on both sites – the only two available plots in the historic square mile.

The company hoping to build a five-story structure at Pine and Kearny streets that would compliment rather than dwarf the neighboring St. Mary’s Square Park. It also proposes a 19-story office tower at 350 Bush St., which incorporates the San Francisco Mining Exchange Building, a run-down, 77-year-old city landmark. The building would become a galleria of shops and restaurants that would double as the entry to the office tower.

The five-story structure would be located at 500 Pine St., across Kearny from the Shorenstein Co.-owned Bank of America Tower. Walter Shorenstein, father of current owner Douglas Shorenstein, proposed a 14-story highrise for 500 Pine St. in the late 1970s that would have cast a shadow on tiny St. Mary’s Square Park, which with Portsmouth Square are Chinatown’s only parks. The administration of then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein rejected that idea.