A Year Later, 888 Brannan Finally Goes Mixed-Use

In the works since the Eastern Neighborhoods plan was passed nearly two years ago, 888 Brannan is finally getting its piece of the pie -- sort of. The Planning Commission has approved owner ScanlonKamperBard's plan to convert 140,000 square feet on the 3rd and 4th floors of the building into office space, with the bottom floors remaining jewelrygiftmartshop (you see what we did there?). The original plan for 888 -- see rendering -- had those office spaces, plus retail, on the ground floor, and renovations were set to cost about $10 million. Now that's looking more like $30 million, as these things so often go. It might not be ideal, but perhaps anything is better than the 54 percent vacancy rate they've currently got going on -- a little higher than the surrounding SoMa vacancy rate of about 40 percent. Bonus: 888 Brannan is on the National Registry for Historic Places, so those millions will go to refurbishing and not reducing the two structures there. Says Planning consultant David Prowler, "It’s union jobs. It's a historic building that is going to come back to life. It’s pretty exciting.”
· City OKs $30M Giftcenter revamp [Business Times]
· Show's Over for Bling, 888 Brannan Goes Mixed-Use [Curbed SF]