Tales of a Tower: For the Titan of SF's Skyline, the New World of Work Presents Daunting Challenges

If the swaggering ethos of pre-pandemic San Francisco could be encapsulated in a building, it would be the Salesforce Tower. Its illuminated crown rising high above all other skyscrapers, the trophy tower holds multiple SF records: the tallest building by over 200 feet, the building with the most office square footage and at $1 billion, the most expensive private building ever built in SF. In addition to the tower, various government entities spent $2.26 billion to build an associated transit center — which dubbed itself the “Grand Central Station of the west” — topped by a lush public park to rival New York City’s High Line. Tech juggernaut Salesforce paid around $1 billion for a package including the biggest lease in SF history, tenant improvements to the building, and naming rights for the park and transit center. Seeking to adopt an identity for a neighborhood that they felt had been misrepresented and overlooked, the local Community Benefit District decided to rebrand the area to the historic name "East Cut."

That was then.

Covid struck the Salesforce Tower neighborhood hard. Once bustling, the area became a sullen shadow of itself as highly paid tech workers decamped for work-from-home spaces. A confused young mountain lion was spotted roaming around what had become a new sort of urban wilderness.

Two years later, the city is desperately trying to lure workers back downtown. It’s one of the key priorities of Mayor London Breed and many business groups — and something of a life-or-death issue for many local merchants in the neighborhood. 

To better understand the present state and future prospects of the Salesforce Tower area (and Downtown San Francisco more generally), The Standard dug into the details of the tenants, their office back-to-work plans, the state of retail on an adjoining block and the park’s visitor stats. The conclusion? It may never be the same. To revitalize the once-bustling downtown, drastic measures beyond begging offices to come back to work will be needed.

The Public Park and Transit Center

Salesforce Park, a public park spanning the top of the Salesforce Transit Center, has a pristine otherworldliness — not a stray piece of trash to be found — uncommon in San Francisco. Stretching 4.5 football fields, the park boasts 16,000 beautifully landscaped plants, arranged in 13 different sub-gardens, each with its own theme. Along the curvy walkway, a “Bus Fountain” spurts water from 247 spouts, triggered in a sequence by bus movements in the transit center.

The park had barely opened when Covid hit and sent visitorship plummeting. The park’s management team performs a daily count of park visitors, which used to range upwards of 1,000 people during lunchtime. During Covid, counts have been as low as 14 people at 8:30 a.m. in the morning and can hit several hundred during lunchtime. 

Park managers expect visitorship to climb as they roll out more free programming, such as bird watching and “Toddler Tuesdays.” A beer garden from local brewer Barebottle will open soon, along with a large restaurant in the next year or two, according to Lily Madjus Wu, spokesperson for the entity that runs the transit center and park.

On a recent week, Monday at the park was dead, but it did come alive a bit on Tuesday — tech workers’ new Monday. At lunchtime, one section of the park was cordoned off with catered lunch for employees of a Salesforce marketing team. They stood in circles, some meeting each other in person for the first time.

 “I’m just here for the free food,” one said. 

Most park visitors wore office attire, but there were also a number of tourists and non-office workers. Shawn Woods, a Muni operator, said he’s been coming to the park on his lunch break for the past three months and finds it a quiet place to relax.

“I’ve never really seen it super crowded,” he said. “When you take away all the office people, it’s empty. I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t work on Mondays so if you come here Mondays or after lunchtime, there’s really not many people here.”

As for the transit center, ridership on AC transit, the main public transit system at the transit center, has plunged by nearly 90% compared to before Covid. In Feb 2020, AC transit operated 30 lines with an average daily ridership of 17,400 passengers. But in March 2022, they operated 15 lines with an average daily ridership of 2,078 , or 12% of the riders from before Covid. AC transit spokesman Robert Lyles said that he's noticed ridership tick up at the end of March, which he thinks is due to offices re-opening for hybrid work as well as gas prices.

The Retail

Pre-Covid, a robust ecosystem of restaurants, shops and services mushroomed around Salesforce Tower offices. During the lunch rush, hordes of vested office workers would form lines stretching down the street outside cafes. But during Covid, as office worker foot traffic dropped off sharply, many retailers temporarily — then permanently — shuttered.

According to data from commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, when comparing Q4 2021 to 2017, retail rent in the Union Square area was down nearly 30%, while vacancies approximately tripled. Another report from market research firm Kidder Mathews showed retail vacancies up 13% in Q4 2021 compared to 2020.

The Standard conducted a deep dive on a key block-long retail corridor off Salesforce tower on Mission Street, which formerly comprised four sit-down restaurants, four cafe or grab-and-go eateries, two healthcare offices, a food truck park, a bakery and a Walgreens. 

Of the 13 total retailers, three of the four sit-down restaurants had closed permanently: upscale Salt House, where office workers would attend happy hours or wine and dine clients, and the casual lunchtime restaurants Perilla and Portico. In addition, to-go spot Sausalito Cafe closed permanently. Temporarily closed are the restaurant Oasis Grill and Truck Stop, an alley that featured a rotating roster of food trucks. Local food businesses Proper Food, La Fromagerie and Whole Cakes were closed during Covid for varying amounts of time but have re-opened. 

The retail that fared better were healthcare offices and large companies: One Medical, an optometrist office, Starbucks and Walgreens all managed to stay open through most of the pandemic.

Whole Cakes

Before Covid, baker Sonya Kim, who owns two Whole Cakes bakeries, was busy churning out her all-organic, low-sugar cakes for office parties.

“There was always a birthday happening,” she said, estimating that 60 to 70% of her revenue came from office events.

Then the pandemic came, and the office birthdays went away. Whole Cakes closed for 20 straight months.

Kim re-opened Whole Cakes late last year, but it’s struggling and losing money. Profits from Kim’s other Whole Cakes in Potrero Hill go to patching the rent in the Salesforce Tower location. She wishes that the offices would coordinate what days workers will be at work because that will help with inventory planning and knowing when to hire staff.

“I really don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “This location is losing money every month and I can’t schedule bakers when we’re selling 10 cookies a day.”

La Fromagerie

La Fromagerie, a local imported European cheese shop, caters to an upmarket lunch crowd with items like smoked duck breast salad and chunks of cave-aged gruyere cheese. Co-owner Thomas Choffel said that of the three La Fromagerie locations, the Salesforce Tower location suffered the most during Covid, with sales down 50%. In comparison, his Dogpatch location “was going great” during Covid, and his financial district location recovered much more quickly.

Choffel is optimistic about San Francisco in general. This year, he’s opening a fourth La Fromagerie location on Chestnut Street in the Marina and a European grocery store in Potrero Hill. 

And as for the underperforming Salesforce location, he’s optimistic enough that he’s opening the store earlier and putting breakfast back on the menu, hoping to capture office workers on their way into work.