Hines Adding Floors to Residential High-Rise in San Francisco

Hines has received approval from San Francisco’s Planning Commission to add six floors to a mixed-use residential tower it will be building at its Transbay Block 4 development in the SoMa submarket.

The Transbay Block 4 development, which includes two residential buildings—including apartments, condominiums and townhomes—that will rise on a block-wide property at 200 Main Street currently occupied by a temporary bus terminal for the Transbay Transit center.

Goldman Sachs and Long Beach-based Urban Pacific are working with Hines on the Transbay development in a joint venture known as F4 Transbay Partners.

The main tower in the Block 4 development will be 47 stories encompassing 840K SF, including 681 multifamily units as well as 8,400 SF of ground floor shops and restaurants and a parking garage for 224 vehicles.

A 16-story, 200K SF podium building also is planned on the site, which will overlook a proposed Transbay Park.

According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Hines is reserving 34% of the units in the development for affordable, below-market-rate apartments.

Plans for the high-rise include 324 market rate and affordable apartment, 135 condos and 20 townhomes in the six-story addition that was approved by the Planning Commission. The podium building will include 202 affordable units.

The Block 4 project will include 52 three-bedroom units and 105 two-bedroom units. Groundbreaking is expected to take place by the end of next year and the project is expected to be completed by 2027.

F4 Transbay Partners signed an agreement with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority in 2016 to purchase the 0.67-acre site for $160M. The deal required the developers to complete the project by the end of 2023.

In April, F4 Transbay Partners reached a deal with the Transbay Joint Powers Authority to pay a fixed $40M in damages for extending the timeline for the project, an extension the partners said they needed to obtain construction financing.

Under its original agreement with the authority, F4 Transbay Partners would have been liable for a $70M payment if it didn’t complete the Block 4 development by the end of 2023—and $15M per year for every year of delay after that.

The amendment to the purchase agreement will require the partners to pay $40M in four installments through July 2027, a fixed amount that will not change regardless of when construction is completed on the project.