SAN FRANCISCO — SOMA Hotel LLC, a privately held hotel development company, has acquired a prime development site in San Francisco’s South of Market area on which it plans to build a 250-room hotel. The announcement marks the city’s first full-service hotel project since 2008. The purchase price of the development site was undisclosed.
The site was purchased from Block 1 Associates LLC, a joint venture between Blackrock Real Estate and Strada Investment Group. Block 1 owns the adjacent land and has announced plans to build 350 units of residential condominiums and apartments.
Construction on the 15-story hotel is slated to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, with an expected opening in the fourth quarter of 2016. The property will be a four-star, premium-branded lifestyle hotel yet to be named and will feature specialized meeting spaces and food and beverage offerings. The hotel will be environmentally constructed in accordance with LEED Gold standards. Affiliates of SOMA will oversee construction of the hotel and operate it upon opening.
The fully entitled 23,000-square-foot site is part of the Mission Bay Redevelopment Plan and is located on Channel Street between 3rd and 4th streets, a block away from AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.
The new hotel is expected to serve multiple demand generators in the burgeoning South of Market area, including numerous high-tech companies, the University of California San Francisco Mission Bay Campus and its 289-bed hospital, several clinics and research facilities. Nearby current and under construction rail systems will provide guests with easy access to the city’s main tourist attractions, such as the Moscone Convention Center, Union Square, Chinatown and Fisherman’s Wharf.
“Downtown San Francisco is one of the most difficult cities for new construction due to scarcity of land and high barriers to new construction,” says Will Gibbs, senior vice president of SOMA Hotel. “This will be the first four-star, new-build hotel in the city’s urban core since 2008. The South of Market district is the city’s most dynamic location and there is a minimal presence of hotels there.”
Michael Cohen, a principal for the seller’s group, says the hotel will be a valued addition. “We welcome SOMA Hotel as a neighbor to our 350-unit residential and retail development complex next to the waterfront and look forward to seeing completion of both developments before the end of 2016.”
San Francisco-based SOMA Hotel is an affiliate of the Stanford Hotels Group, which owns and operates 13 hotels and has five additional hotels under construction and in various development stages located in Times Square, New York; South Lake Union, Seattle; Fifth and Stewart, downtown Seattle; L’Enfant Plaza, Washington D.C.; and now, South of Market, San Francisco.
Strada Investment Group is a real estate investment and development firm focused on high-barrier-to-entry urban markets. Headquartered in San Francisco, the firm unites under one roof a team of executives with experience in public finance and development with leading real estate private equity professionals.
— Matt Valley