1275 Market St

Where 1275 Market St is

Its block in Downtown San Francisco, drawn from San Francisco's own building outlines and street centerlines.

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

34 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.

The typical floor has 796 ft of exterior wall, and across 16 residential floors the building carries 12,731 ft of it in total, divided among the 375 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.63: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 23.4 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1275 Market St scores 52 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 58, Interior depth 9, Scale 100, Finance 53 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 9 out of 100: deepest interior point 76 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1976

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1976, which puts it in the late-modern stock.

As a rule, typically the hardest to convert: the deepest plates of any era, large central cores, and floor-to-floor heights tight enough that running residential drainage under a ceiling can be the thing that ends a project. That is the era’s general tendency rather than a finding about this building — the model reads an outline and a height, and can see nothing inside — but it is the first thing an architect would want to know, and it colours how much confidence the 69% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 508,290 sq ft of converted floor, or $205.9M in total — about $549K for each of the 375 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 156,338 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, seismically braced and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $366K a home, which for 375 homes is $137.3M.

What would have to be true

A $68.6M gap before any grant, $58.6M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 30% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $68.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 375 homes finishing at $549K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 50% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $270 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $522K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $58.6M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1275 Market St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1275 Market St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

1275 Market St ranks 190th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 11% of them, and shallower than 7% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 37th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 205 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within South of Market and the C-3-G zone

11th of 14 in South of Market, 18th of 22 zoned C-3-G — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 14 of the screened buildings in South of Market. 1275 Market St ranks 11th of them against a median score of 82. 9 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 45 ft from a facade against this building’s 76 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,045 homes. The group’s top scorer is 431 Natoma St, at 100.

22 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-G. 1275 Market St ranks 18th of them against a median score of 76. 13 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 51 ft from a facade against this building’s 76 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,588 homes. The group’s top scorer is 40 Leavenworth St, at 92.

Its nearest match in size: 221 Main St

The screened building closest to 1275 Market St in converted floor area is 221 Main St: 515,532 sq ft over 16 stories, against 508,290 sq ft over 17 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 52 here, 51 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 8,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1275 Market St $10.0M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.

That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.

It does not sit in a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, so it would not draw that Section 201 priority.

Other buildings screened near 1275 Market St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 370 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 32 9th St
  11 stories · 66% daylit · 547 estimated homes · scores 45/100 (Marginal)
  about 370 ft away
• 875 Stevenson St
  10 stories · 67% daylit · 228 estimated homes · scores 58/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 490 ft away
• 2 Hyde St
  4 stories · 72% daylit · 71 estimated homes · scores 50/100 (Marginal)
  about 720 ft away
• 1170 Market St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 40 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 820 ft away