456 Montgomery St

Where 456 Montgomery 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

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

The typical floor has 457 ft of exterior wall, and across 25 residential floors the building carries 11,423 ft of it in total, divided among the 259 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.63: 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 10.4 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 456 Montgomery St scores 96 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 84, Scale 100, Finance 98 — 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 84 out of 100: deepest interior point 46 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 93% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 262,632 sq ft of converted floor, or $106.4M in total — about $411K for each of the 259 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 19,357 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 259 homes is $94.8M.

What would have to be true

A $11.6M gap before any grant, $1.6M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: completed value per home 2% up.

The shortfall before any grant is $11.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 259 homes finishing at $411K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 12% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $361 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $372K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $1.6M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 456 Montgomery St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 456 Montgomery St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

456 Montgomery St ranks 34th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 56% of them, and shallower than 52% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 68th 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

32nd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 23rd 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. 456 Montgomery St ranks 32nd 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 46 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. 456 Montgomery St ranks 23rd 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 46 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: 101 Montgomery St

The screened building closest to 456 Montgomery St in converted floor area is 101 Montgomery St: 271,985 sq ft over 28 stories, against 262,632 sq ft over 26 here.

456 Montgomery St scores 96 to its 100, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 84 out of 100 here, 100 there (deepest interior point 30 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 101 Montgomery St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 456 Montgomery St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,100 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 456 Montgomery 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 456 Montgomery St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 110 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 464 California St
  12 stories · 82% daylit · 299 estimated homes · scores 82/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 110 ft away
• 400 Montgomery St
  11 stories · 100% daylit · 109 estimated homes · scores 96/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 417 Montgomery St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 80 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 603 Commercial St
  24 stories · 81% daylit · 303 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 250 ft away