603 Commercial St

Where 603 Commercial 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

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

The typical floor has 494 ft of exterior wall, and across 23 residential floors the building carries 11,357 ft of it in total, divided among the 303 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.78: 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 13.2 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 603 Commercial St scores 77 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 83, Interior depth 52, Scale 100, Finance 75 — 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 52 out of 100: deepest interior point 59 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 81% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 349,966 sq ft of converted floor, or $141.7M in total — about $468K for each of the 303 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 65,164 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 303 homes is $110.9M.

What would have to be true

A $30.8M gap before any grant, $20.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 16% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $30.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 303 homes finishing at $468K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 28% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $317 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $435K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $20.8M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 603 Commercial St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 603 Commercial St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

603 Commercial St ranks 129th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 34% of them, and shallower than 32% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 52nd 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 Chinatown and the C-3-O zone

7th of 12 in Chinatown, 67th of 88 zoned C-3-O — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 12 of the screened buildings in Chinatown. 603 Commercial St ranks 7th of them against a median score of 80. 11 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 54 ft from a facade against this building’s 59 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,335 homes. The group’s top scorer is 505 Sansome St, at 99.

88 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O. 603 Commercial St ranks 67th 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 59 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: 280 Battery St

The screened building closest to 603 Commercial St in converted floor area is 280 Battery St: 346,681 sq ft over 23 stories, against 349,966 sq ft over 24 here.

603 Commercial St scores 77 to its 83, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from daylight efficiency: 83 out of 100 here, 89 there (84% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,000 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 603 Commercial 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 603 Commercial St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 160 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 555 Montgomery St
  20 stories · 84% daylit · 238 estimated homes · scores 84/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 417 Montgomery St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 80 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away
• 540 Montgomery St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 62 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 220 ft away
• 456 Montgomery St
  26 stories · 93% daylit · 259 estimated homes · scores 96/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 250 ft away