248 Front St

Where 248 Front 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

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

The typical floor has 478 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 3,344 ft of it in total, divided among the 87 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.74: 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 12.4 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 248 Front St scores 85 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 93, Interior depth 80, Scale 58, Finance 95 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 58 out of 100: 87 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 2000

San Francisco records this building as going up in 2000, which puts it in the modern stock.

As a rule, newer systems and better structure, but usually built deep and sealed for office use, and rarely cheap enough to buy at a price that lets a conversion pencil. 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 94,464 sq ft of converted floor, or $38.3M in total — about $440K for each of the 87 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 12,564 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 87 homes is $31.8M.

What would have to be true

A $6.4M gap before any grant, $1.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 3% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $6.4M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 87 homes finishing at $440K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 20% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $337 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $5.2M moves that threshold to $380K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $1.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 248 Front St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 248 Front St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

248 Front St ranks 107th 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 51% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 133rd 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 zone

90th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 54th of 88 zoned C-3-O — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 165 of the screened buildings in Financial District/South Beach. 248 Front St ranks 90th 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 48 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 40,456 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

88 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O. 248 Front St ranks 54th of them against a median score of 89. 76 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 44 ft from a facade against this building’s 48 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 21,444 homes. The group’s top scorer is 266 Bush St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 255 Battery St

The screened building closest to 248 Front St in converted floor area is 255 Battery St: 100,774 sq ft over 8 stories, against 94,464 sq ft over 8 here.

248 Front St scores 85 to its 73, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 80 out of 100 here, 51 there (deepest interior point 60 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 600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 248 Front St $5.2M, 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 248 Front St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 180 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 150 California St
  23 stories · 96% daylit · 336 estimated homes · scores 99/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 201 Sacramento St
  13 stories · 90% daylit · 217 estimated homes · scores 99/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 220 California St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 39 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 300 ft away
• 280 Battery St
  23 stories · 84% daylit · 311 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 350 ft away