750 Market St

Where 750 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

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

The typical floor has 1,217 ft of exterior wall, and across 10 residential floors the building carries 12,172 ft of it in total, divided among the 383 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.42: a slab or an L, which is why so much of the floor lies within reach of a window: the outline buys daylight that a square plan of the same area would not. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 38.3 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 750 Market St scores 57 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 64, Interior depth 18, Scale 100, Finance 57 — 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 18 out of 100: deepest interior point 73 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1908

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1908, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.

As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. 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 72% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 499,985 sq ft of converted floor, or $202.5M in total — about $529K for each of the 383 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 140,151 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 383 homes is $140.2M.

What would have to be true

A $62.3M gap before any grant, $52.3M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 27% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $62.3M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 383 homes finishing at $529K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 44% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $280 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $503K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $52.3M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 750 Market St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 750 Market St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

750 Market St ranks 183rd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 13% of them, and shallower than 9% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 36th 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

150th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 23rd 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. 750 Market St ranks 150th 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 73 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. 750 Market St ranks 23rd 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 73 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: 221 Main St

The screened building closest to 750 Market St in converted floor area is 221 Main St: 515,532 sq ft over 16 stories, against 499,985 sq ft over 11 here.

750 Market St scores 57 to its 51, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 64 out of 100 here, 52 there (66% 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 4,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 750 Market 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 750 Market St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 240 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 30 Ofarrell St
  7 stories · 69% daylit · 144 estimated homes · scores 55/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 240 ft away
• 785 Market St
  18 stories · 100% daylit · 142 estimated homes · scores 99/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away
• 735 Market St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 49 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 460 ft away
• 73 Geary St
  10 stories · 89% daylit · 117 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 510 ft away