216 Beale St

Where 216 Beale 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

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

The typical floor has 1,059 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 7,411 ft of it in total, divided among the 225 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.52: 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 32.1 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 216 Beale St scores 47 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 51, Interior depth 5, Scale 100, Finance 51 — 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 5 out of 100: deepest interior point 78 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1928

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1928, which puts it in the interwar stock.

As a rule, steel or concrete frames with punched windows and plates still narrow enough for daylight to reach the middle, often with high ceilings. Among the most convertible stock there is, and the reason so many early conversions were of buildings this age. 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 66% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 322,532 sq ft of converted floor, or $130.6M in total — about $581K for each of the 225 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 111,137 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 225 homes is $82.3M.

What would have to be true

A $48.3M gap before any grant, $38.3M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 32% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $48.3M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 225 homes finishing at $581K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 59% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $255 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $536K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $38.3M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 216 Beale St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 216 Beale St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

216 Beale St ranks 193rd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 5% of them, and shallower than 6% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 79th 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

158th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 61st 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. 216 Beale St ranks 158th 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 78 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). 216 Beale St ranks 61st 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 78 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: 875 Stevenson St

The screened building closest to 216 Beale St in converted floor area is 875 Stevenson St: 321,074 sq ft over 10 stories, against 322,532 sq ft over 8 here.

216 Beale St scores 47 to its 58, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 5 out of 100 here, 44 there (deepest interior point 62 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 216 Beale 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 216 Beale St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 130 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 301 Howard St
  22 stories · 79% daylit · 271 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 130 ft away
• 235 1st St
  10 stories · 54% daylit · 347 estimated homes · scores 32/100 (Marginal)
  about 320 ft away
• 199 Fremont St
  25 stories · 75% daylit · 414 estimated homes · scores 67/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 330 ft away
• 400 Howard St
  10 stories · 62% daylit · 237 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 440 ft away