The base rent at the Pyramid has risen to $115 per square after dipping as low as $60 per square foot during the pandemic, with the owner asking for $300 per square foot for the top floors after a renovation that added a sky bar lounge and a wellness center, among other upgrades.

The $300 per square foot price for the top levels of the Pyramid makes it the third-most expensive office space in the U.S., behind only One Vanderbilt and 425 Park Avenue in Manhattan.

Rents at One Market Plaza average about $59 per square foot, slightly above the $51 per square foot average in San Francisco, according to CoStar data.

“Attracting one of the world’s most respected law firms further validates Transamerica’s place as the leading commercial building in San Francisco,” Shvo said in a release announcing the Morgan Lewis lease.

Occupancy at the Transamerica Pyramid is approaching 80%, Shvo told the San Francisco Business Times last month.

The firm and its partners bought the 48-story Pyramid in 2020 for $650M in a deal that included two adjacent office buildings on Sansome Street. At the end of last year, the developer unveiled the $250M first phase of a two-part renovation of the Pyramid, the adjacent buildings at 505 and 545 Sansome and the redwood grove that connects the three buildings.

While the GenAI boom is driving an emerging recovery in San Francisco’s beleaguered office market, which saw its vacancy rate peak at nearly 37% at the end of last year, law firms have continued to flock to the highest-quality premium properties.

Beveridge & Diamond recently announced it will move its San Francisco office to 333 Bush Street, a renovated Financial District tower owned by Tishman Speyer Last year, BakerHostetler inked a five-year lease renewal for the entire 31st floor at the Transamerica Pyramid.

In April, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani moved into a newly renovated three-story building in the city’s red-hot Jackson Square neighborhood near the Pyramid. The building at 315 Pacific Avenue features a private roof deck, a virtual trial and presentation studio and a 4,000-square-foot “living room.”

Law firms are expressing growing confidence in an office recovery in San Francisco, with many moving to increase their footprints in the city.

In October, New York-based Debevoise & Plimpton inked a new 10-year lease at 650 California Street, a move doubling its footprint in the building to more than 31K square feet. Another NY firm, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, signed an 11.5-year lease for the entire 25th floor and part of the 24th in the same building.