First & Mission
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.

HMV Land Assembly is a family office investment and development firm that owns significant real estate assets in Nevada, Idaho, and California, and is focused on the ground-up development of various Class-A property types.
© 2022. All Right Reserved. HMV Website.

HMV Land Assembly is a family office investment and development firm that owns significant real estate assets in Nevada, Idaho, and California, and is focused on the ground-up development of various Class-A property types.
© 2022. All Right Reserved. HMV Website.