401 Kearny St

Where 401 Kearny 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

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

The typical floor has 556 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 2,226 ft of it in total, divided among the 62 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.76: 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 15.5 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 401 Kearny St scores 68 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 77, Interior depth 60, Scale 41, Finance 79 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 41 out of 100: 62 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 2017

San Francisco records this building as going up in 2017, 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 78% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 74,451 sq ft of converted floor, or $30.2M in total — about $486K for each of the 62 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 16,152 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 62 homes is $22.7M.

What would have to be true

A $7.5M gap before any grant, $3.7M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 12% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $7.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 62 homes finishing at $486K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 33% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $305 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $3.7M moves that threshold to $426K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $3.7M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 401 Kearny St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 401 Kearny St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

401 Kearny St ranks 156th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 29% of them, and shallower than 38% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 159th 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

127th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 80th 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. 401 Kearny St ranks 127th 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 56 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. 401 Kearny St ranks 80th 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 56 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: 725 Market St

The screened building closest to 401 Kearny St in converted floor area is 725 Market St: 74,888 sq ft over 6 stories, against 74,451 sq ft over 5 here.

401 Kearny St scores 68 to its 90, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from daylight efficiency: 77 out of 100 here, 100 there (94% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they part ways: 725 Market St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 401 Kearny St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,900 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 401 Kearny St $3.7M, 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 401 Kearny St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 140 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 601 California St
  22 stories · 83% daylit · 265 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 140 ft away
• 636 California St
  33 stories · 79% daylit · 444 estimated homes · scores 71/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 370 ft away
• 580 California St
  23 stories · 80% daylit · 304 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 390 ft away
• 350 Bush St
  19 stories · 100% daylit · 161 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 470 ft away