With much of San Francisco’s office stock built decades ago, building owners have initiated extensive renovations to attract modern office workers in recent years. Modernizing offices allows building owners to create open office floor plans and to compete with the new office towers being built throughout the financial district.
100 California, also known as 100 Cal, is among the latest office buildings to undergo a building refresher and now has a multitude of tenants from various industries including nonprofits, financial, insurance and tech. Renovations at Columbia Property Trust's 650 California, which were completed within the last 12 months, also created open floor plans and have already attracted various tech companies.
The most recent renovations allowed 100 Cal building owner Pembroke Real Estate to add an additional floor with a 4K SF private roof deck. The previously underused 14th floor now offers 20K SF of open floor space and 17.5 feet of clear heights with 360-degree views of the city, a rarity in San Francisco.
The low height of the nearby Embarcadero Center allows office tenants to view the Ferry Building. The 13th floor, which offers ceiling heights of 13.5 feet, also was renovated, creating 40K SF of available space. Construction on the 14th floor is expected to be completed by the end of June.
Pembroke bought the property in 2014 and renovated the lobby and the entire back-of-the-house operations. Elevators were also remodeled; destination controls allow people to use a key fob to select their floor. The building was built in 1959 for Bethlehem Steel.
“We set out to reimagine a mid-century modern building to meet the needs of today’s San Francisco business culture,” Pembroke Real Estate Vice President and head of San Francisco operations Cory Saunders said.
Design Blitz transformed the lobby to include soft seating and places for people to meet and do interviews.
“We wanted to create a lobby that would be different and be an extension of the workplace,” Saunders said.
The owner also brought in Specialty Bakery to bring more people into the building. Additional ground-floor retail spans the base of the property.
“We saw the plaza and fell in love with what it does to draw people to the building,” Saunders said.
Additional amenities include end-of-trip facilities with bike storage for more than 100 bikes, a bike repair station, showers, 108 lockers and complimentary towel service. Saunders said the company took much of what it learned from end-of-trip facilities in Australia to accommodate the needs of San Francisco employees. Bike riders have a back-door entrance that allows them direct access to the bike facilities without having to bring their bikes through the lobby.
Since Pembroke purchased the property, it has leased about 160K SF and most recently added Segment, a San Francisco-based online hub for collecting, storing and routing customer data for analytics, marketing and data warehousing services. Hope Lab, a nonprofit focusing on improving the health and well-being of kids and young adults, is among the newest tenants.
CBRE Executive Vice President Bill Cumbelich and Senior Associate Patrick Devinger repped the landlord during these transactions and will market the two additional floors.
Samsome Street principal Pat Hubbard repped Segment, and CBRE Senior Vice President Steve Salomon and Desiree Harbacek repped Hope Lab.
Pembroke also owns 140 New Montgomery and has assets in Washington, D.C., London, Melbourne, Stockholm and Tokyo.
