201 Spear St

Where 201 Spear 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

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

The typical floor has 744 ft of exterior wall, and across 17 residential floors the building carries 12,647 ft of it in total, divided among the 268 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.39: a slab or an L, which is why so much of the floor lies within reach of a window: the outline buys daylight that a square plan of the same area would not. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 15.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 201 Spear St scores 92 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 94, Interior depth 87, Scale 100, Finance 88 — 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 87 out of 100: deepest interior point 45 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1986

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1986, 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 87% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 288,512 sq ft of converted floor, or $116.8M in total — about $436K for each of the 268 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 36,967 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 268 homes is $98.1M.

What would have to be true

A $18.8M gap before any grant, $8.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 8% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $18.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 268 homes finishing at $436K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 19% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $340 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $399K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $8.8M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 201 Spear St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 201 Spear St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

201 Spear St ranks 48th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 47% of them, and shallower than 55% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 65th 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

45th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 12th 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. 201 Spear St ranks 45th 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). 201 Spear St ranks 12th 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: 155 Main St

The screened building closest to 201 Spear St in converted floor area is 155 Main St: 276,446 sq ft over 19 stories, against 288,512 sq ft over 18 here.

201 Spear St scores 92 to its 81, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 87 out of 100 here, 60 there (deepest interior point 56 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 500 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 201 Spear 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 201 Spear St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 200 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 101 Howard St
  5 stories · 78% daylit · 57 estimated homes · scores 62/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 200 ft away
• 221 Main St
  16 stories · 66% daylit · 363 estimated homes · scores 51/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 310 ft away
• 120 Howard St
  12 stories · 77% daylit · 171 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 320 ft away
• 211 Main St
  17 stories · 70% daylit · 286 estimated homes · scores 53/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 330 ft away