73 Geary St

Where 73 Geary 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

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

The typical floor has 489 ft of exterior wall, and across 9 residential floors the building carries 4,401 ft of it in total, divided among the 117 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.73: 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 13.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 73 Geary St scores 89 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 98, Interior depth 75, Scale 78, 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 75 out of 100: deepest interior point 50 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 89% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 124,330 sq ft of converted floor, or $50.4M in total — about $430K for each of the 117 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 13,907 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 117 homes is $42.8M.

What would have to be true

A $7.5M gap before any grant, $511K after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 1% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $7.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 117 homes finishing at $430K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 18% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $344 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $7.0M moves that threshold to $370K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $511K uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 73 Geary St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 73 Geary St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

73 Geary St ranks 83rd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 51% of them, and shallower than 48% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 119th 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

69th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 15th 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. 73 Geary St ranks 69th 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 50 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. 73 Geary St ranks 15th 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 50 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: 138 Minna St

The screened building closest to 73 Geary St in converted floor area is 138 Minna St: 125,768 sq ft over 9 stories, against 124,330 sq ft over 10 here.

73 Geary St scores 89 to its 98, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 75 out of 100 here, 100 there (deepest interior point 38 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 138 Minna St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 73 Geary St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 73 Geary St $7.0M, 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 73 Geary St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 100 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 47 Geary St
  5 stories · 93% daylit · 88 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 100 ft away
• 28 Geary St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 46 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 280 ft away
• 60 Maiden Ln
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 59 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 360 ft away
• 25 Kearny St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 38 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 370 ft away