Imagine a place where the office space is fully leased, apartments are packed, and residents and workers are lining up in front of beloved neighborhood institutions like Che Fico, Barebottle Brewing, Burma Love or Andytown Coffee Roasters.
It sounds like a pre-pandemic memory of San Francisco, but this scene is actually playing out in Menlo Park, where a developer thinks it has just what the beleaguered Financial District needs to recapture its mojo.
Completed last year by San Francisco developer Presidio Bay Ventures, the 760,000-square-foot project called Springline was meant to create a feeling of being in a large resort, without being at an actual resort, according to Presidio Bay Managing Director Cyrus Sanandaji.
The so-far successful bet is that an atmosphere associated with a relaxing vacation might be the key to getting more people working in person. In addition to two office buildings and 183 apartments, the complex includes a fitness center, a private spa, a golf simulator and a public outdoor gathering space.
Presidio Bay wants to gut and renovate an 11-story office building it picked up at a steep discount last year, located on the corner of Spear and Mission streets. The largely vacant property was purchased for $40.9 million last summer, a price two-thirds less than its previously assessed value.
Sanandaji said the project, dubbed 88 Spear, is about repositioning the property to make it usable and relevant again in today’s post-pandemic market, where commodity office space has fallen out of vogue.