648 Market St

Where 648 Market 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

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

The typical floor has 453 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 1,813 ft of it in total, divided among the 44 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.71: 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 11.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 648 Market St scores 82 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 99, Interior depth 72, Scale 29, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 29 out of 100: 44 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1924

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1924, 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 89% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 46,309 sq ft of converted floor, or $18.8M in total — about $426K for each of the 44 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 4,866 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 44 homes is $16.1M.

What would have to be true

A $2.7M gap before any grant, $11K 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 $2.7M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 44 homes finishing at $426K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 16% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $348 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $2.6M moves that threshold to $366K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $11K uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 648 Market St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 648 Market St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

648 Market St ranks 123rd 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 45% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 183rd 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

102nd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 64th 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. 648 Market St ranks 102nd 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 51 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. 648 Market St ranks 64th 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 51 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: 735 Market St

The screened building closest to 648 Market St in converted floor area is 735 Market St: 46,601 sq ft over 6 stories, against 46,309 sq ft over 5 here.

648 Market St scores 82 to its 90, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 72 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: 735 Market St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 648 Market St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 648 Market St $2.6M, 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 648 Market 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.

• 57 Post St
  9 stories · 100% daylit · 52 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 110 ft away
• 88 Kearny St
  21 stories · 100% daylit · 236 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 130 ft away
• 600 Market St
  38 stories · 86% daylit · 424 estimated homes · scores 85/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 140 ft away
• 25 Kearny St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 38 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 270 ft away