505 Montgomery Street

505 Montgomery was developed by the Empire Group of San Francisco. Empire assembled ten contiguous parcels in 1978,[5] and filed their initial design study on 7 January 1983 with the San Francisco Department of City Planning.[6] The initial design called for a 28-story building, 416 feet (127 m) high including a 16-foot (4.9 m) mechanical penthouse and ground-floor commercial space. The design was revised to a 24-story building based on floor area ratio calculations, and the final conditional use authorization was granted in June 1984.[5] During construction, Mitsui Fudosan acquired a controlling interest in the unfinished building from The Empire Group and development was completed under the management of AMB.[3][7]

Retrofitting projects, including a 1994 lighting retrofit, earned the building an Energy Star label.[8] National Office Partners (NOP), a partnership between Hines Interests LP and CalPERS, acquired 505 Montgomery from Mitsui Fudosan and The Empire Group in 1999.[9] The building was subsequently sold by NOP to RREEF in 2005.[10]

505 Montgomery was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in homage to the Art Deco skyscrapers of the 1930s. It features a stepped-back trapezoidal (mansard) roof and the exterior is clad in polished Barre Gray granite.[8]

Grabhorn Park (now Empire Park) is located in the 600 block of Commercial Street, and was provided by the developers of 505 Montgomery as a privately owned public space.[5][11] The initial building design included a pedestrian arcade at the site of 505 Montgomery connecting Sacramento and Commercial streets. However, the arcade would have been rather small, expensive, shaded, and the commercial atmosphere was thought to be unwelcoming for the neighboring community of Chinatown. Therefore, the public open space was moved to a nearby property in 1988, which also freed up additional leasable floor space in 505 Montgomery.[5]