150 Minna St

Where 150 Minna 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

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

The typical floor has 499 ft of exterior wall, and across 5 residential floors the building carries 2,497 ft of it in total, divided among the 67 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.72: close to a square or a circle, the most efficient envelope an office can have and the least generous one for apartments: little perimeter to divide among homes. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 13.4 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 150 Minna St scores 86 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 96, Interior depth 88, Scale 45, Finance 97 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 45 out of 100: 67 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1907

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1907, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.

As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. 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 88% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 71,639 sq ft of converted floor, or $29.0M in total — about $433K for each of the 67 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 8,725 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 67 homes is $24.5M.

What would have to be true

A $4.5M gap before any grant, $472K after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: completed value per home 2% up.

The shortfall before any grant is $4.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 67 homes finishing at $433K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 18% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $342 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $4.0M moves that threshold to $373K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $472K uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 150 Minna St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 150 Minna St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

150 Minna St ranks 106th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 49% of them, and shallower than 56% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 154th 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 Financial District/South Beach and the C-3-O(SD) zone

89th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 24th of 66 zoned C-3-O(SD) — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 165 of the screened buildings in Financial District/South Beach. 150 Minna St ranks 89th of them against a median score of 88. 121 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 47 ft from a facade against this building’s 45 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 40,456 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

66 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O(SD). 150 Minna St ranks 24th of them against a median score of 72. 37 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 59 ft from a facade against this building’s 45 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 18,546 homes. The group’s top scorer is 140 New Montgomery St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 1660 Mission St

The screened building closest to 150 Minna St in converted floor area is 1660 Mission St: 71,960 sq ft over 6 stories, against 71,639 sq ft over 6 here.

150 Minna St scores 86 to its 83, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 88 out of 100 here, 77 there (deepest interior point 49 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 7,900 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 150 Minna St $4.0M, 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 150 Minna St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 60 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 647 Mission St
  5 stories · 100% daylit · 26 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 60 ft away
• 138 Minna St
  9 stories · 99% daylit · 133 estimated homes · scores 98/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 170 ft away
• 140 New Montgomery St
  26 stories · 100% daylit · 368 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 240 ft away
• 90 New Montgomery St
  15 stories · 96% daylit · 127 estimated homes · scores 98/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away