Updated renderings have been published for the office variant at 536 Mission Street in SoMa, San Francisco. The proposal was approved in mid-September to replace the Golden Gate University campus building with a 47-story tower, with the team currently pursuing a fully commercial or mixed-use variant. Lincoln Property Company and McCourt Partners are jointly responsible for the development.
536 Mission Street establishing view, rendering by SOM
SOM is the project architect responsible for the design. The rounded edges and subtly patterned glass tower take influence from its neighbors around the Transbay terminal. The detailed renderings show a curtain wall-glass skin indented with vertical recessed panels. According to the project plans, fully shielded LED light strips can be installed in the recessed areas, allowing the tower to be subtly illuminated at night.
Speaking with JK Dineen for the San Francisco Chronicle following city approval, Lincoln Executive Vice President Brendan Wong said, “to be clear, the all-office is our focus and what we intend to build… We are in active discussion with potential tenants that want the quality and attributes that the all-office tower provides.” Wong went on to elaborate that the residential component was not financially feasible. With the current wave of office leases in San Francisco led by companies involved with artificial intelligence technology, speculation is that OpenAI or Anthropic could be the potential whales driving developers into the current office-project frenzy.
536 Mission Street nighttime rendering showing how the LED light strips could be utilized, rendering by SOM
536 Mission Street pedestrian view of the entrance lobby, rendering by SOM
The GGU project is being pursued alongside office towers proposed for the former PG&E headquarters at 50 Main Street and 77 Beale Street designed by Pickard Chilton, the newly revamped plans for 50 1st Street designed by Gensler, and The Jackson at 530 Sansome Street designed by SOM.
The office proposal for 536 Mission Street would include 1.22 million square feet of office space, 9,410 square feet for retail, and 39,7230 square feet for a 62-car garage. Additional parking would be included for 270 bicycles. The 46-story skyscraper would become the fifth-tallest building in the Bay Area if built today. With an expected rooftop height of 752 feet, the project would surpass 345 California Street and stand just 27 feet shorter than the famous 555 California Street. Both existing buildings were also designed by SOM.
536 Mission Street ground-up view, rendering by SOM
536 Mission Street site context, illustration by SOM
The property is located along Mission Street between 1st Street and Second Street, next to 50 1st Street and across from 555 Mission Street. Demolition would be required for the existing seven-story Golden Gate University campus, including the late Brutalist complex designed by William D. Podesto & Associates with consulting engineer T.Y. Lin.
Golden Gate University sold the downtown property in early September this year for $31.6 million. The approval motion states that construction must start on the office project within 18 months of the mid-September meeting, i.e., March 2028, or the entitlement approval would be revoked. Extensions to the approval would be up to the discretion of the Zoning Administrator.
Golden Gate University front elevation, image by Andrew Campbell Nelson
Construction is estimated to cost around $350 million, a figure not inclusive of all development costs. Work is expected to take around four years from groundbreaking to completion, with the foundation expected to start a year after demolition, and vertical construction starting 18 months after demolition.
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What about the record high office building vacancy rate?
there is not record high vacancy in class a buildings like this, so what about it?
also the chronicle article made it pretty clear that this building will likely wait until there’s a pre-lease in place.
All San Franciscans who are about the health of The City should hope that the current AI bubble pops before any of these office buildings start construction, because while it may be true that the is increasing demand for class A office space, most of that demand will evaporate when the bubble pops, just like it did cira 2000.
If ANY of these projects are completed before the bubble pops, then afterward will will have even more vacant office space than we had immediately after the pandemic. No developer ever applies for a demolition permit to take down a vacant Class B or Class C office building during a downturn.
According to the most recent report from Cushman & Wakefield (‘San Francisco Office MarketBeat report covering the San Francisco office market for Q3 2026’), even after the recent improvements in office space vacancy “driven largely by the artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI) sector”, San Francisco still has a 29.3 vacancy rate, and that doesn’t count the office space not being actively advertised and marketed as being available.
A company signing a pre-lease could and probably will go out of business during the enevitable pop of the AI bubble, and leave the developer holding the bag. Have you forgotten what happened with two Oceanwide Center towers, or are you too young to remember?
if you don’t know how to spell inevitable, then you probably aren’t the smartest person in the room to lecture the rest of us on what benefits the city. SF is better off with more towers, first because construction jobs are good for the city, and second because even vacant office towers are paying property taxes.
Of course, the problem not mentioned in the above post, that Lincoln Property Co is willfully ignoring, is that San Francisco already has a glut of office space. They can go on about OpenAI or Anthropic leasing the space, but of course the developers behind 50 1st St and the other office space projects mentioned above are going after the EXACT same market. S.F. doesn’t have a need for the office space behind any single one of these newly-proposed projects.
This is a classic example of a market failure. While there is a glut of existing office space, the market for high end Class A office space is pretty tight. Most new buildings are built as Class A and then filter down through the classes as they age so there can be an oversupply of overall office space while the sought after office space is extremely tight. At the same time this leads to the boom – bust bubble real estate market the bay area is known for. This is where housing policy could fill a void, either artificially boosting incentives to make the market for new housing competitive with office space, or continuing to cut regulations around housing, or a public entity acting as a financer to make housing projects pencil out. That said maybe land values in this part of the city are just too high to justify housing.
This AI bubble is gonna burst before long. I am just hoping it does before they tear down a bunch of buildings and then leave us holes in the ground like last time.
It is so stupid that San Francisco sold its soul to Big Tech. I wish it would all just go to Plano, TX or some other flyover hellhole.
This is a terrible plan. This neighborhood needs residential. It should be mixed use at minimum, but really 100% resi. I hope the city rejects this. We have too many vacant office buildings. This is not a good plan