440 Sutter St

Where 440 Sutter 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

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

The typical floor has 650 ft of exterior wall, and across 25 residential floors the building carries 16,256 ft of it in total, divided among the 466 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.70: 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 18.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 440 Sutter St scores 62 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 68, Interior depth 29, Scale 100, Finance 59 — 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 29 out of 100: deepest interior point 68 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1929

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1929, 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 74% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 592,060 sq ft of converted floor, or $239.8M in total — about $515K for each of the 466 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 154,861 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 466 homes is $170.6M.

What would have to be true

A $69.2M gap before any grant, $59.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 26% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $69.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 466 homes finishing at $515K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 41% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $288 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $493K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $59.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 440 Sutter St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 440 Sutter St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

440 Sutter St ranks 173rd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 18% of them, and shallower than 13% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 24th 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-R zone

142nd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 22nd of 25 zoned C-3-R — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 165 of the screened buildings in Financial District/South Beach. 440 Sutter St ranks 142nd 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 68 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 40,456 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

25 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-R. 440 Sutter St ranks 22nd of them against a median score of 90. 21 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 32 ft from a facade against this building’s 68 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,773 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 100 1st St

The screened building closest to 440 Sutter St in converted floor area is 100 1st St: 570,885 sq ft over 27 stories, against 592,060 sq ft over 26 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 62 here, 60 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 3,000 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 440 Sutter 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 440 Sutter St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 310 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 519 Powell St
  9 stories · 100% daylit · 64 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 310 ft away
• 350 Post St
  11 stories · 100% daylit · 95 estimated homes · scores 95/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 370 ft away
• 312 Sutter St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 36 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 570 ft away
• 245 Post St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 35 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 700 ft away