The San Francisco Transit Center District Plan (“TCDP”) was an ambitious redevelopment plan that was adopted by the City of San Francisco in 2005 and envisioned increased height density limits for a limited number of landmark projects which would contribute heavily to the construction costs of the new $4 billion San Francisco Transit Center located at the southeast corner of First and Mission Streets in Downtown San Francisco.  The previous maximum height permitted for high-rises in San Francisco had been 550-feet for several decades but with the anticipation of the passing of the Transbay Center District Plan, several property owners proposed significantly taller towers including the SalesForce Transit Tower, a 1,070-foot-tall office tower built at the new Transit Center itself.

David Choo, on behalf of his family trusts, purchased a total of seven land parcels from five separate owners at 62 1st Street, near the Northwest corner of First and Mission Street in 2003. Over the next three years, Mr. Choo also acquired nearly 300,000 SF of Transferable Development Rights and hired the renowned Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Renzo Piano to design a series of towers at the 51,000 SF site.

The development site is in the heart of the new and modern South of Market downtown financial district of San Francisco, just 3 blocks away from the Bay Bridge merge, 1 block away from Market St (the biggest street in San Francisco), 3 blocks away from The Embarcadero Bayfront street, and 5 blocks away from Union Square.

Mr. Choo proposed a mixed-use project including a 915-ft tall office building and 610-ft hotel & residential building, totaling over 2.4 Million square feet of building area on those seven parcels.  At the time, the tallest buildings in San Francisco were the Transamerica Pyramid (built 1972, 853-ft height) and the Bank of America Center (built 1970, 779-ft height).  The generally allowed FAR (Floor Area Ratio) was 18:1, which would have allowed for approximately 925,000 SF of building area to be built.  Despite the proposal requesting both significant height limit and nearly triple the allowable building area, the Transbay Center District Plan was ultimately approved in 2012 and the final approvals for the Project, now named Oceanwide Plaza, was approved in 2013.

Mr. Choo was heavily impacted by the 2008 Financial Crisis and was ultimately forced to sell the Project site to Northwood Investors and TMG Partners for $122 Million.  17 months later, the group sold the site to Oceanwide Holdings for $296 Million without having built anything or furthered the development plans.  Oceanwide was the 5th largest developer in China and has since pushed plans to develop the site into Oceanwide Center, which will include the 169-room Waldorf Astoria San Francisco Hotel and approximately 150 residential units.