483 Sacramento St
483 Sacramento St is a 10-story building in Downtown San Francisco with 89% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 98 homes and scores it 90 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.
CA-11 · Screened 2026-10-12 · Strong candidate
Also addressed as 485 Sacramento St, 340 Sansome St, 350 Sansome St and 354 Sansome St: San Francisco’s address records place all 5 on this one footprint.
Where 483 Sacramento St is
Its block in Downtown San Francisco, drawn from San Francisco's own building outlines and street centerlines.
- Already housing
- Not screened
- 483 Sacramento St
This building does not pencil at default assumptions, even with a modeled RESIDE Act grant.
Every floor carries 1,218 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, seismically braced and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 9 residential floors that is 10,963 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.
Modeled conversion metrics for 483 Sacramento St, 2026-10-12.
| Suitability scoreStrong candidate | 90 / 100 |
|---|---|
| Storiesfrom 136 ft LiDAR (2010) height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor | 10 |
| Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint | 11,475 sq ft |
| Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade | 89% |
| Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft | 46 ft |
| Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable | 1,218 sq ft |
| Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average | 98 |
| Conversion cost$405/sq ft all-in on 103,279 sq ft | $41.8M |
| Gap before grantshortfall against completed value | $6.0M |
| Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap | $5.9M |
| BuiltSan Francisco's own record of the construction year | 1952 |
| ZoningFinancial District/South Beach | C-3-O |
| Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract | No |
The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm
40 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.
The typical floor has 433 ft of exterior wall, and across 9 residential floors the building carries 3,899 ft of it in total, divided among the 98 homes this screen estimates.
Its plate is compact at 0.77: 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 10.9 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.
Why 483 Sacramento St scores 90 out of 100
Daylight efficiency 99, Interior depth 85, Scale 65, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.
Score components for 483 Sacramento St. Points are the subscore times its weight.
| Component | Subscore | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daylight efficiency89% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90% | 99 | 45% | 44.4 |
| Interior depthdeepest interior point 46 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft | 85 | 25% | 21.1 |
| Scale98 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150 | 65 | 15% | 9.8 |
| Financeremaining gap is 0% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0% | 100 | 15% | 15.0 |
Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 65 out of 100: 98 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.
Built in 1952
San Francisco records this building as going up in 1952, which puts it in the post-war stock.
As a rule, the period when plates got deep and facades became curtain wall: sealed glazing, lower floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical systems designed around a sealed box. Conversions here usually turn on whether the windows can be made to open and whether ceilings survive new plumbing. 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 89% daylight figure above deserves.
What the conversion would cost
$405 per square foot all-in across 103,279 sq ft of converted floor, or $41.8M in total — about $427K for each of the 98 homes.
All-in cost per square foot for 483 Sacramento St: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.
| Base conversion cost | $260/sq ft |
|---|---|
| Seismic retrofit (change of use) | $45/sq ft |
| Plumbing risers to every unit | $40/sq ft |
| Operable windows and glazing | $30/sq ft |
| Additional egress stair | $18/sq ft |
| Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R) | $12/sq ft |
| All-in | $405/sq ft |
That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 10,963 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 98 homes is $35.9M.
What would have to be true
A $6.0M gap before any grant, $80K after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: completed value per home under 1% up.
The shortfall before any grant is $6.0M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 98 homes finishing at $427K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 17% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $347 per square foot.
A modeled RESIDE grant of $5.9M moves that threshold to $367K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $80K uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.
Nor do all four levers have to move. For 483 Sacramento St, one alone would close the gap at:
Single-assumption flip points for 483 Sacramento St, each holding the other three at their defaults.
| Completed value per homethe binding constraint — the least this building would need | under 1% upto $367K |
|---|---|
| Conversion cost per square foot | under 1% downto $259/sq ft |
| Average unit size | 1% downto 746 sq ft |
| Circulation efficiency | 1% upto 80% |
All four are sliders in the survey, where 483 Sacramento St re-scores against your own numbers.
How it compares in Downtown San Francisco
483 Sacramento St ranks 67th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.
Its floor plate is better lit than 52% of them, and shallower than 53% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 126th 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
55th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 39th 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. 483 Sacramento St ranks 55th 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. 483 Sacramento St ranks 39th 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: 400 Montgomery St
The screened building closest to 483 Sacramento St in converted floor area is 400 Montgomery St: 102,357 sq ft over 11 stories, against 103,279 sq ft over 10 here.
483 Sacramento St scores 90 to its 96, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 85 out of 100 here, 100 there (deepest interior point 34 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 400 Montgomery St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 483 Sacramento St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 500 ft apart.
Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?
The model awards 483 Sacramento St $5.9M, 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 483 Sacramento St
The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 150 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.
- 350 California St22 stories · 82% daylit · 303 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)about 150 ft away
- 241 Battery St30 stories · 79% daylit · 408 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)about 160 ft away
- 301 Battery St8 stories · 72% daylit · 148 estimated homes · scores 68/100 (Worth a feasibility study)about 200 ft away
- 537 Sacramento St15 stories · 73% daylit · 272 estimated homes · scores 64/100 (Worth a feasibility study)about 210 ft away
A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.