SAN FRANCISCO, March 12, 2024 — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank and financial services provider to some of the world's most innovative companies and investors, today announced the opening of its new office in downtown San Francisco. Located at 222 2nd Street, the updated space features modern workspaces as well as an event room and outdoor terrace for meetings with clients and innovation economy partners.

“SVB has enjoyed being part of the innovation community for 40 years and we are excited to continue serving Bay Area founders and investors from our vibrant new location in the city,” said Marshall Hawks, SVB senior market manager in San Francisco. “Our customers value our ability to bring our ecosystem partners together, and our new office event space enables even more of that connection.”

This investment from SVB and parent company First Citizens in San Francisco supports the bank's growth objectives and continued commitment to serving the innovation economy. SVB has been actively serving the innovation economy since it was taken over by First Citizens in March 2023. With 40 years of experience, SVB has more experience serving innovation clients than any other financial services provider. The entire business is designed specifically for high-growth companies and investors and delivered at the speed they need. SVB remains committed to the success of the investors and innovators who are inventing the future and now has the full support of the 125-year-old First Citizens Bank to continue pursuing this mission.

SVB will occupy several floors of the building and will move from its office at 505 Howard Street just a block away. SVB has a flexible hybrid work policy, so the space is equipped with numerous collaboration areas as well as private video conferencing areas for hybrid working.

The new office also includes more than 6,000 square feet of entertainment space for events. SVB is known for hosting events that bring the innovation economy together. In the last three quarters of 2023, SVB held or sponsored more than 400 events nationwide. The SVB Experience Center at 532 Market Street will continue to be used for customer events.

SVB has had a presence in San Francisco for 25 years since opening its first office at 185 Berry Street in China Basin in 1999. In addition to the San Francisco office, SVB has Bay Area offices in Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

About Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, banks some of the world's most innovative companies and investors. SVB provides commercial and private banking to individuals and companies in the technology, life sciences and healthcare, private equity, venture capital and premium wine sectors. Operating in innovation centers across the United States, SVB serves the unique needs of its dynamic clients with deep industry knowledge, insights and connections. SVB's parent company, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNCCA), is one of the 20 largest U.S. financial institutions with more than $200 billion in assets. First Citizens Bank, member FDIC. Find out more at svb.com.

Media contact 

Katie Ellis Fredlund

kellis@svb.com

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Marc Benioff, chief executive officer of Salesforce Inc., said he pushed San Francisco officials to clean up the city before his company's annual conference began in his hometown this week and was pleased with the results.

“We put a lot of pressure on the city this year,” Benioff said during a press event Wednesday. “This looks great. It's very safe at the moment. We're moving in the right direction.”

Benioff caused a stir last month when he said that Dreamforce, San Francisco's largest convention, could leave the city if the event's attendees experienced homelessness and drug use.

“Nobody liked that — I didn’t like saying it,” Benioff said of his threat during a separate event Wednesday on stage with California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“We're coming after you, we want to keep you here,” Newsom said after Benioff noted that the city this week was the cleanest he'd ever seen.

About 43,000 people are expected to participate in Dreamforce, which will generate nearly $90 million for the city, a Salesforce spokesperson said, citing data from the San Francisco Travel Association. The conference is scheduled to end on Thursday.

Moving Salesforce's flagship annual meeting out of the city would be another blow to the region's tourism economy after major events hosted by Oracle Corp. and Google's cloud division were relocated from Alphabet Inc. According to the San Francisco Travel Association, conference spending remains well below pandemic levels — falling to $587 million in 2022 after generating nearly $2 billion in 2019.

The association estimates that convention-related hotel room nights will decline 34% in 2024 compared to this year. Overall visitor spending recovered faster and is expected to reach 88% of pre-pandemic levels this year.

Although Benioff was pleased with how this year went, he did not respond to a press question about whether Dreamforce would be back in San Francisco in 2024, saying city officials still had more work to do. “Homelessness remains a major problem in our city,” Benioff said, adding that more housing is needed and more police officers should be hired.

“It is an ongoing effort to increase the visibility of police and community ambassadors in key tourist areas,” said a spokesperson for Mayor London Breed’s office. “San Francisco is committed to making Dreamforce a world-class event, as we do year after year.”

Salesforce officials said there had been no reports of security incidents related to homelessness or drug use among conference attendees as of Wednesday afternoon. A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said there were no such incidents at last year's Dreamforce event.

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Celebrity chef Tyler Florence is moving his popular traditional restaurant Wayfare Tavern from its current home at 558 Sacramento Street at the end of the year. A representative for Florence confirmed the move Thursday, writing in a statement that the restaurant “will move to a new, larger property in San Francisco in early 2025.” But it appears the team remains committed to downtown San Francisco's financial district and is considering a nearby location as the restaurant's new home. “We have spent the last few years renovating our new, fantastic space just around the corner,” the statement reads in part. “The current location of Wayfare Tavern will remain open and fully operational until we move.”

Last year, scant details about a new Wayfare Tavern location emerged when the San Francisco Business Times noted that business permits had been filed for a new location at 201 Pine Street. However, it was previously unclear whether the new property was intended for a relocation of the existing restaurant or a second location. In addition to rumors of a Wayfare move, Florence has been busy over the last year, opening two cafes in Union Square and taking over the City Hall building, while also operating his restaurants Miller & Lux in Thrive City and Wayfare Tavern.

The 12,000-square-foot historic building that houses Wayfare Tavern is already listed for lease in 2025 through Maven Properties. Since being rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, the building has changed hands over the years. During his time under Florence, he and designer Lori Yeomans added elegant touches such as floors made from wood from a tobacco farm in Kentucky, and star designer Ken Fulk took over the top floor bar, Sequoia, in 2017.

In an interview with Eater SF at the opening of Wayfare, Florence was asked what he thought about moving into the space that once housed the famous Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco. “So many great chefs, Traci des Jardins, Elizabeth Falkner and Drew Nieporent, got their start here; and Jeremy Fox met his wife here,” Florence said at the time. “To take that spot, it feels like you had better step up your game.”

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Rakuten International, a subsidiary of the Japanese tech giant that locals may know as the Golden State Warriors' jersey sponsor, announced Monday that the company is moving from its old offices at 160 Spear St. to a larger space around the corner at 300 Mission St . is moving .

The company is currently moving into the building's 29,000-square-foot 18th floor and views the new deal as a renewed “commitment to the city,” Rakuten said.

Previously, Rakuten's approximately 160 employees in San Francisco were divided into two separate floors on Spear Street, which the company had occupied since 2015. This rental agreement has now expired.

“Our previous location's 24,000 square feet was spread over two floors with outdated floor plans that were increasingly impediment to effective collaboration,” Rakuten International CEO Amit Patel said in a statement.

The 18th floor on Mission Street, meanwhile, will feature more amenities, conference rooms and collaboration spaces for Rakuten employees, Patel added. According to the listing, the 24-story building was built in 1968 and renovated in 1995 and 2007. Other tenants include Instacart, Equinox, Mendocino Farms and Autodesk.

Workplace review company Glassdoor leased four floors at 300 Mission in 2019 as part of its headquarters move from Mill Valley to San Francisco. But after the pandemic scuppered plans to move hundreds of employees into the building, the company subsequently offered two floors for sublease – which generally offers prospective tenants more favorable and/or flexible terms.

The Japanese company's U.S. headquarters is in nearby San Mateo, 800 Concar Dr., and Rakuten employs more than 550 people in the Bay Area. Rakuten International spokesman Shawn Roberts confirmed that employees must come to the offices at least three days a week.

About half of the company's nationwide workforce is based in offices, Roberts said.

Rakuten's business centers on its e-commerce website, sometimes referred to as the “Amazon of Japan,” which was launched in 1997. The success of this platform has since spawned a financial services division and even a mobile services network that launched in 2020.

Real estate brokerage firm JLL represented Rakuten in its latest sublease at 300 Mission.

The post Rakuten Doubles Down on San Francisco With Downtown Lease appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The office has event rooms for customers from the innovation economy

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank and a financial services provider to some of the world's most innovative companies and investors, today announced the opening of its new downtown office San Francisco. Located at 222 2nd Street, the updated space features modern workspaces as well as an event room and outdoor terrace for meetings with clients and innovation economy partners.

Silicon Valley Bank today announced the opening of its new office in downtown San Francisco. Located at 222 2nd Street, the updated space features modern workspaces as well as an event room and outdoor terrace for meetings with clients and innovation economy partners.

“SVB has enjoyed being part of the innovation community for 40 years and we are excited to continue serving Bay Area founders and investors from our vibrant new location in the city,” he said Marshall HawksSVB Senior Market Manager San Francisco. “Our customers value our ability to bring our ecosystem partners together, and our new office event space enables even more of that connection.”

The San Francisco The investment by SVB and parent company First Citizens supports the bank's growth objectives and its ongoing commitment to serving the innovation economy. SVB has been actively committed to the innovation economy since it was taken over by First Citizens in 2011 March 2023. With 40 years of experience, SVB has more experience serving innovation clients than any other financial services provider. The entire business is designed specifically for high-growth companies and investors and delivered at the speed they need. SVB remains committed to the success of the investors and innovators who are inventing the future and now has the full support of the 125-year-old First Citizens Bank to continue pursuing this mission.

SVB will occupy several floors of the building and will move from its office at 505 Howard Street just a block away. SVB has a flexible hybrid working policy, so the space is equipped with numerous collaboration areas as well as private video conferencing areas for hybrid working.

The new office also includes more than 6,000 square feet of entertainment space for events. SVB is known for hosting events that bring the innovation economy together. In the last three quarters of 2023, SVB held or sponsored more than 400 events nationwide. The SVB Experience Center at 532 Market Street will continue to be used for customer events.

SVB was represented in San Francisco for 25 years, since opening its first office at 185 Berry Street in China Basin in 1999. In addition to the San Francisco Office, SVB has offices in the Bay Area Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Santa Clara.

About Silicon Valley Bank
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a division of First Citizens Bank, banks some of the world's most innovative companies and investors. SVB provides commercial and private banking to individuals and companies in the technology, life sciences and healthcare, private equity, venture capital and premium wine sectors. SVB is continuously active in innovation centers The United StatesWe serve the unique needs of its dynamic customers with deep industry expertise, insights and connections. SVB's parent company, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ: FCNCA), is among the 20 largest U.S. financial institutions with more than 200 billion dollars in assets. First Citizens Bank, Member FDIC. Find out more at svb.com.

SOURCE Silicon Valley Bank

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Five people were injured in San Francisco Wednesday when an AC Transit bus rammed into another AC Transit bus, crashed into an occupied vehicle, careened onto a sidewalk, and stopped between a high-rise building and some scaffolding, “narrowly missing” traffic light poles, police said.

The bus was traveling northbound near Fremont and Folsom streets at the time of the crash, which was reported around 9:25 a.m., Officer Robert Rueca told reporters.

The five people who were sent to area hospitals include the drivers of both buses, a bus passenger and a passenger in a private vehicle, according to AC Transit spokesman Robert Lyles. 

“We wanted to transport them as quickly as possible, knowing that the traffic in the area was going to get heavy and that their health was our biggest concern,” Rueca said.

One of the five victims appears to have taken themselves to the hospital at some point after the collision, Lyles said.

Passengers aboard the bus said the entire experience lasted between 15 and 20 seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

“We were crossing Folsom, and we felt a couple of sharp jolts and I thought maybe they were pumping their brakes,” said Dave Zemke. “But then we hit something really big.”

That big bump was another bus. The green vehicle only came to a stop after hitting the scaffolding of a building on the 200 block of Fremont Street.

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There is an AC transit bus on the sidewalk on Fremont St btwn.Folsom &Howard. Passengers tell me driver passed out, hit another bus and pole pic.twitter.com/TqFvvskRa8

— Sam Brock (@SamNBCBayArea) September 27, 2017

A commuter seated near the front of the bus said the driver appeared to be on the verge of passing out.

The driver “started coming down” the hill, Carrie Murphy said, “and you know how the buses line up, and there’s like a passing lane and she tried to ask one of the other bus drivers to let her in because she wasn’t feeling well.”

Rueca said that the bus didn’t hit any pedestrians on the 200 block of Fremont Street, otherwise the crash could have been much worse. 

“There was a gentleman who I was talking to that said he was walking down the sidewalk, looked back, saw the bus approaching and jumped into a planter and actually watched as the bus went over!” Zemke said.

Traffic in downtown San Francisco was “heavily impacted” for several hours because the buses couldn’t be moved until police officers had processed the scene of the collision, said Rueca.

For hours after the crash, crews removed the scaffolding above the bus one piece and pipe at a time. Two tow trucks were then needed to hoist the bus from the pavement. 

The crash closed the Fremont/Folsom Street and Harrison Street off-ramps from Interstate 80, but both have since reopened, Rueca said. As of around 4 p.m., the only remaining street closure was on the section of Fremont Street between Folsom and Howard streets.

Rueca said it is too early to comment on the cause of the crash. An investigation is ongoing.

AC Transit buses typically traverse the city “safely,” he said. “This is a rare occurrence.”

Lyles said AC Transit has collected video from the involved buses and is checking to see if any San Francisco city buses in the area have video that might be helpful.

“We’re very grateful that the injuries were limited, and that there weren’t more bystanders or pedestrians involved in this,” Lyles said. “We are investing considerable energy and effort into trying to ascertain exactly what happened.”

Lyles said that Fremont Street was cleared fairly quickly and buses on the popular Transbay bus line were able to regain access to the San Francisco terminal by around 1 p.m.

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• KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building as the city’s ‘doom loop’ continues to batter its downtown region
• It comes as shoe store Alto also prepares to exit San Francisco Centre, the city’s biggest mall, next week
• Nearly 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent, according to a recent report 

Accounting firm KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building, another high-profile exit from San Francisco’s beleaguered downtown.

The consulting and accounting giant first leased space in the 25-story office tower when the building opened in 2002.  Its name hangs above the entry to the skyscraper where the company currently occupies more than 100,000 square feet. 

It comes as shoe store Alto prepares to exit San Francisco Centre, the city’s biggest mall, next week.

Businesses and residents have fled downtown San Francisco since the pandemic with groups blaming crime, homelessness and work-from-home keeping people from downtown. 

Nearly 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent, according to a recent report. 

KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building after two decades in downtown San Francisco Nordstrom have recently moved out of the city’s downtown contributing to a loss of footfall

KMPG, a large accounting and financial firm, originally took 90,000 square feet at 55 Second St. in a 10-year contract, marking the second-largest office deal of 2003.

It has since grown its footprint to span nearly one-third of the 380,000-square-foot building, leading to it being widely known as ‘The KPMG Building’.

The company is now considering ending its two-decade-long relationship with the building, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s the latest tenant looking to exit the downtown area. 

Now, another business is set to leave the area’s largest shopping center as Aldo moves its store from the San Francisco Centre. The mall lost Adidas last Saturday, as well as other recent losses including Hollister, Lego and J. Crew. 

The mall lost $910 million between 2016 and 2023, with half the rental space now empty, according to an appraisal published last month.

Its owners lost control of the 5-million-square-foot retail and office complex to lenders last year. 

The high-profile closures and exits suggest San Francisco’s ‘doom loop’ is far from over. A doom loop is where a city loses its tax base and can’t afford improvements needed to fix the situation to bring new businesses and residents back to an area. 

The city’s downtown has suffered from the proliferation of homeless encampments, open-air drugs markets and rampant theft. 

Hordes of brand names, including the likes of Whole Food and Nordstrom, that have recently moved out contributing to a loss of footfall that then drives out other businesses.

The city has also struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses. 

Nearly 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent, according to a recent report The city’s downtown has suffered from the proliferation of homeless encampments, open-air drugs markets and rampant theft The city has also struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a vicious circle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.

High theft has proved a problem in the area recently, with a Walgreens in the city center resolving to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters.

Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month.

Anthropologie and Office Depot have also made the same decisions.

These stores joined the growing list of stores that have abandoned the coastal city, including H&M, Marshall’s, Gap and Banana Republic.

A disturbing recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

The post KPMG transferring out of $400million ‘KMPG constructing’ in downtown San Francisco with close by besieged mall loses one other tenant as doom loop continues to see residents and companies flee liberal-led metropolis appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Big construction projects in Downtown San Francisco have stalled, leaving carpenters, plumbers, painters and other professionals and tradespeople short of work.

Big-ticket permit applications at the city’s Department of Building Inspection have plummeted, as office, apartment and tenant improvement projects in the Financial District have been put on hold or canceled, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The statistics only include jobs worth $5 million or more. From January through August, builders filed for 42 such permits, worth a total of $1.4 billion in electrical, plumbing and building jobs.

It’s on pace to rival 2020, when pandemic lockdown rules didn’t allow for nonessential construction, which included commercial and retail projects. That year there were 60 big-ticket permit applications totaling $1.3 billion.

Last year, 86 such permit applications were filed, for $2.9 billion in work.

The number of big construction projects this year is on track to be 70 percent less than 2018, when 184 permits were pulled for projects in excess of $5 million, for $7.3 billion worth of jobs.

Construction industry leaders blame the steep decline in construction on a drop in tenant improvement projects related to office leases.

With office buildings still at less than 50 percent capacity and a majority of Financial District workers operating remotely much of the week, San Francisco saw 2.6 million square feet of office leasing through June, on pace to end the year with about 5 million square feet.

That’s less than the 6.5 million square feet of leasing that took place last year and fewer than the 11 million square feet of deals completed in 2019 or the 13 million in 2018.

Workers who rely on tenant improvements – architects, carpenters, electrical contractors, drywallers, painters, plumbers, movers and HVAC technicians – are hustling to make up for lost income.

There are now 1,300 union construction workers out of work in San Francisco, according to Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer for the San Francisco Building Trades Council.

“For some crafts, (tenant improvements) may be one-third of their hours and for others it might be half,” Gonzalez told the Chronicle. “Most of that work has dried up.”

Patrick O’Riordan, director of the Department of Building Inspection, said the construction business is boom or bust.

The permitting slowdown is still busier than it was in 2010 and 2011, when the city was recovering from the Great Recession. In 2010, the city saw 28 permit applications for work that exceeded $5 million, for a total of $728 million in work.

“Everyone who has ever worked in construction knows it’s a cyclical business,” O’Riordan said. “As a former carpenter, I know this cycle firsthand.”

— Dana Bartholomew

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By Erika Morphy

October 23, 2023 at 07:35 AM

This is not to downplay the problems the neighborhood is facing.

At the end of August, Ikea opened a store in Downtown San Francisco, bucking the stream of retailers fleeing this once much-desired urban neighborhood. Specifically, the three-level, 52,000-square-foot store became the anchor tenant for a new mixed-use development that will also feature office, restaurants and entertainment. The opening wasn’t necessarily a show of support by Ikea for the beleaguered city although it has certainly raised hopes among local officials that the new store will lead to more traffic downtown. Rather, Ikea’s new San Francisco location is part of a larger expansion plan in the U.S. in which it will showcase smaller stores in urban areas instead of the suburbs where it has typically gone. The San Francisco store was among the first to open.  

But the local officials may well be on to something with their hopes for Downtown. A recent report from CBRE also points to reasons for guarded optimism for the neighborhood: Economic rent, which is average rents multiplied by the occupancy rate, is up 26% from the early 2022 trough, it said. 

In fact, there are glimmers of a retail recovery in many  outlying San Francisco neighborhoods, such as the Mission District, where economic rent is up slightly from pre-pandemic levels, it said. Meanwhile, the recovery is even further along in San Mateo, Brisbane and other residential communities along the Peninsula. “This likely reflects home-based workers spending less on Market Street and more at neighborhood cafés,” it said. It may be that that dynamic will change – the Ikea store, for example, is located on Market Street and CBRE said it was possible it would be a harbinger of better times ahead.

None of this is to downplay the serious problems San Francisco retail is facing. Many marquee names have left the area and CBRE notes that “the combination of crime and remote work has driven many young, affluent and highly mobile workers from Downtown San Francisco, taking a heavy toll on retail districts like Union Square.” Retail economic rents in Downtown San Francisco are currently down 14% from 2019 levels, it also observed. 

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