- Strada Investment Group has proposed 1,500 new units at 88 Bluxome St., marking one of San Francisco’s largest recent housing efforts.
- The project is the first to use new SoMa zoning laws that remove office space requirements to prioritize residential development.
- With average rents at $3,260 and vacancy at a 10-year low, the city faces growing pressure to meet its state-mandated housing goals.
- The proposal replaces a stalled office project, reflecting a broader shift from commercial to residential development in San Francisco.
Pivoting From Office To Housing
A long-stalled site in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood may finally see action — not as a tech office hub, but as a residential development, reports CoStar. Strada Investment Group has filed plans to build 1,500 housing units across two high-rise towers at 88 Bluxome St., previously home to the city’s historic tennis club. The proposal includes 785 units in one tower and 715 in another, with about 10% set aside for very-low-income tenants.
This marks the first major project under a new zoning framework that removes the requirement for office space in large developments, signaling a policy shift as the city prioritizes housing in response to mounting affordability pressures.
From Tech Dreams To Housing Reality
Originally acquired by Alexandria Real Estate Equities for $130M in 2017, the site was envisioned as a 1M SF office complex. Pinterest signed a lease for nearly half the space in 2019, but exited the deal the following year amid pandemic-driven uncertainty, effectively pausing the project.
SoMa, once central to San Francisco’s Central SoMa Plan to expand the Financial District southward, failed to materialize into a tech corridor. As of 2025, none of the major office projects approved under the 2018 rezoning plan have broken ground. Now, with tech-led leasing showing signs of recovery, Strada is repositioning the site as a much-needed SoMa housing anchor.
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A Market In Transition
San Francisco’s residential market is heating up amid a growing housing shortage. Average rents have climbed 4.3% year-over-year to $3,260 per month — now above pre-pandemic highs — while the apartment vacancy rate has fallen to 4.9%, the lowest in a decade.
San Francisco built just over 1,200 units in 2024—well below the state-mandated goal of 82K units by 2031. With 25 residential projects representing over 5K units waiting in the wings in SoMa alone, Strada’s proposal may signal broader movement toward unlocking that potential.
What’s Next
The 88 Bluxome plan splits the site into two market-rate towers and one parcel for 150 affordable housing units. If approved, it would be the largest housing project in the city’s current development pipeline.
The move aligns with recent city efforts to reimagine its commercial core. Officials eased fees and taxes to boost office-to-residential conversions, a strategy more successful in cities like New York and DC.
Whether this SoMa housing jump-starts the neighborhood’s long-awaited transformation into a residential hub remains to be seen, but it offers a glimpse of how San Francisco might finally turn the corner on its housing crisis.
