Asian investors made significant investments in San Francisco last year. Out of CommercialCafé’s top 20 Asian office buys, four were made in San Francisco, totaling $949M. Comparatively, Asian office acquisitions in San Francisco were worth $296M in 2015, $350M in 2014 and $129M in 2013. San Francisco also was among the most sought-after cities from Chinese investors for commercial real estate in 2016.

Last year was one of the biggest years for Asian office buys since 2012, when the government of Singapore spent $910M on 101 California St. In 2016, the biggest buy was the Phelan Building at 760 Market St. for $374M by the Hotung family of Hong Kong. Thor Equities originally bought the property for $130M eight years ago. Other Asian acquisitions include HNA Group’s purchase of 123 Mission St. for $255M ($740/SF) from Pacific Eagle Holdings. HNA Group used a $187M loan from Blackstone Group for this purchase.