Pacific Union Taps the SoMa Vibe
Submitted July 21, 2010, 8:26 PM
Count residential brokerage Pacific Union International as the latest to be drawn to the growing magnetism of San Francisco’s South of Market.
The 17-office company has acquired South Beach Real Estate and South Beach 4 Rent. Sean Dwyer, the president and founder of South Beach, will remain with Pacific Union as director of new development, bringing existing relationships with property developers to the brokerage and cultivating new ones.
“You have light rail, heavy rail and high-speed rail all converging in District 9 and all literally within walking distance of downtown. All of these new condominium buildings are being built, and that is just today,” he said. “The question for me isn’t should we go to District 9. It is how fast can we get to District 9.”
More condominiums were sold in the city’s South of Market, Mission and Potrero submarkets in the last three months than in any other neighborhood, according to second-quarter data from the San Francisco multiple listing service. In total, 284 condos, single-family homes and tenant-in-common units were sold. That compares to 195 units total in the next-most-active region, the Noe Valley, Castro and Haight neighborhoods. The quarter is not atypical, Barber said.
District 9, in the central-east portion of San Francisco, also includes AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants play baseball.
Median prices are also rising in the SoMa-Mission submarket. Condo prices have risen from $607,000 in the second quarter of 2009 to $650,000 in the same time this year, according to the MLS. That said, the San Francisco housing market is breathing harder in general. Many districts, though not all, are showing good price appreciation. Single-family median home prices in the Pacific Heights-Marina neighborhood rose to $3 million in the second quarter from $2.6 million a year ago, for instance. Citywide, twice as many condominiums priced below $1 million sold in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period of 2009: 500 units versus 250.
And the SoMa inventory is rising. Just more than 9,100 new condominiums were built in San Francisco from 2000 through 2009, according to The Mark Company. The preponderance were South of Market, said Alan Mark, president and company founder.
North of Market Street, the city is more built-out and resistance from more established communities can make new development more tricky, he said. In addition, the San Francisco City and County is pushing development South of Market.
But there are reasons beyond its “quantum-leap growth” for a residential brokerage to gravitate to South of Market, Mark said. San Francisco residents do move within the city, but they don’t like to leave their neighborhoods. Given that half or more of those buying in SoMa are first-time home owners, if price appreciation is good, those same buyers will be looking to move up in the next three to six years, he said.
SoMa’s attraction also extends beyond those who work in the city. SoMa is a cusp community in that a quarter of those buying work on the Peninsula or even Silicon Valley, Mark said.
The Mark Company works with housing and mixed-use property developers, providing research, design consulting, marketing and sales expertise. The company has represented multiple housing developments in SoMa, including Mission Bay’s Arterra condominiums. It is currently working with Ezra Mersey and Jackson Pacific Ventures to sell the 165-condo One Hawthorne, also South of Market.
“A lot of people like the edginess of South of Market, and being able to walk to the Ferry Building is a huge seller,” Mark said. Indeed, the amenities within walking distance including restaurants and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art help drive the area’s sales. “A lot of people commute during the week, and at night or on the weekends, they just want to walk to everything,” he said.
In addition, thousands more condominiums have been approved for development in SoMa, according to The Mark Company research.
SoMa is also drawing new businesses. According to commercial brokers, in the last nine months, tech companies including Twitter Inc., Yelp Inc. Ubisoft Entertainment SA and UStream Inc. have all opened shop in SoMa or expanded their footprints.
In time, South of Market is going to be San Francisco’s “epicenter,” Barber said. “We are a little part of the story of what is happening, and we are sticking our flag in the ground.”
