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PG&E's San Francisco Headquarters Hits the Market

Jun 01, 2021

The sale of PG&E’s headquarters in San Francisco will likely be one of the most significant real estate investments this year. These historic buildings take up the entire city block, and the historic edifice facing Market Street is a well-known cultural landmark. Marx|Okubo, in conjunction with our consultants Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger Inc., VDA Consulting, and SCS Engineers, Inc. are proud to have performed the property condition assessment (PCA) on behalf of the owner of this property. The collection of buildings comprise over two million square feet across seven structures (four of which are historical landmarks and interconnected into a single structure), below grade parking, and landscape elements and amenities covering an entire city block.

Our team performed four separate site visits over the course of four weeks amid restrictive Covid-19 social distancing protocols. From the falcon’s nests at 77 Beale, the historic cupola at 215 Market, the waterfall in the atrium facing Beale Street and the underground garage and basement facilities, the team observed and documented the condition of the buildings at a level of detail beyond ASTM 2018 requirements. In addition, our team observed a variety of aspects, from the timing of the elevator speeds, the condition of the terracotta decorative elements on the building façade, the curtain wall of the 34-story tower, to seismic capacity of the structures, and the various fire/life safety and mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems throughout these buildings.

Our site visits would take the entire day and cover several miles walking through spaces, corridors, climbing up many, many stairs and ladders and squeezing into tight and dark spaces. Inspired by the challenges, our team members genuinely love buildings, are inquisitive by nature, and were truly excited about being able to provide our services on a significant historic landmark that the PG&E headquarters represents. There was a lot of thoughtful, detailed reporting and additional support provided to the client over the course of several months.

Read more about this 34-story, 940,000-square-foot building hitting the market HERE.

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Marx|Okubo is a national architecture/engineering/construction consulting firm that works with real estate owners, investors and lenders—at every point of the property lifecycle—to evaluate their building projects, solve complex challenges and implement tailored solutions. We help clients understand their projects’ complexities, so they can make more informed decisions and, ultimately, mitigate their risk.