We caught up with Polaris Pacific partner Chris Foley, who just assembled three SoMa sites for one big housing development. The 20k SF site, within the city's Central SoMa Plan, includes 667 Folsom, 120 Hawthorne, and 126 Hawthorne. Almost all the land in S.F. that was approved in the last cycle has been bought up, leaving no real entitled land anymore. The buyer can expect 12 to 24 months get through the entitlements process and another six months for the building permit. So from purchase to starting construction we are talking up to two and a half years, he says.
Chris has reached out to a large list of developers—local, regional, national, and international. A lot of foreign money is interested, he says. The call for offers is Sept. 12 and he expects to get about 10 to 15. The site can fit a 130-foot-tall building. With low interest rates and strong rents, the market is seeing both condo and multifamily developers buy land today.
Large sites that were owned by individual owners are now gone. This deal involved the tricky task of getting multiple property owners on the same page to take the site to market. Combined it's got more value than each individual lot by itself, he says. Polaris has 25 projects up and down the West Coast. It's been selling Vida in the Mission, above. Now is an exciting time, he says, because it's about helping developers design product for new buyers and for a whole new era.
