Tishman Speyer last year paid Chevron $189 million for that building and the connecting 555 Market St, which together total 838,000 sf. Since the sale, Tishman Speyer has experienced a flow of willing tenants during the dot-com explosion and now the opposite, a rapid decline and a serious lack of tenants.

During the Internet boom, Tishman had no problem leasing up the buildings at peak rents to Internet firms. Now, Tishman is finding that many of these firms are downsizing, going out of business and relocating. Chevron is the latest, and greatest of these casualties.

Chevron's new headquarters will be near its existing Chevron Park Campus in San Ramon. The company relocated most of its employees that were in La Hambra to San Ramon last year, and expects to do the same with its San Francisco office over the course of this year.

"We have enjoyed important and positive relationships in San Francisco for nearly a century, and we'll miss being part of a community that has been our corporate home for so long," said Chevron Chairman and CEO Dave O'Reilly. "While San Francisco is a great location, we need to bring all of our people together. We've found over the past couple of years that it just isn't efficient to operate our headquarters from San Francisco."

Tishman will be left with a building that has one of the city's highest vacancy rates. Real estate experts recommend that the company reposition the property, marketing smaller firms in more stable industries.