SAN FRANCISCO-The historical class B Rialto Building at 116 New Montgomery St., at the corner of Mission in the South Financial District of San Francisco, recently went through a historical restoration, leading to a jumpstart of leasing activity.
Built from 1898 to 1902 and redone after the earthquake/fire of 1906 the building went through a historical restoration of the lobby interior of the building including the common area and historic staircase starting in late 2008 and finishing up in mid 2009. As a result, over the past 18 months, the building, owned by a partnership between Bomel Cos. and AFIUSA and well as CWR Holdings has signed more than 100,000 square feet of new office leases.
Of those new leases only about 5% were renewals to existing clients. Most recently, real estate website, Trulia Inc., signed a 32,000 square-foot lease to anchor the building. Steven Firtel, managing director of development and corporate counsel at Bomel Cos., who serves as the ownership representative and asset manager for the property, while also serving as legal counsel in lease negotiations, tells GlobeSt.com that the company’s four-year deal has annual rent bumps and an allowance for a portion of the likely construction costs. As for the rent, although Firtel would not name specifics, he says that the rent is competitive for the market. “When you factor in rent bumps, we hope it is consistent with a market recovery,” he says. Cornish & Carey Commercial represented Trulia in the transaction.
In conjunction with the new leases, the company has completely overhauled and redesigned the vast majority of the office space within the building while at the same time consolidated most of the smaller suites into new larger open floor plan spaces, which Firtel says “can better take advantage of the natural light and eight corners per floor due to the H-shape of the building.” Part of what the company did with the tenant improvement packages offered to tenants was to implement a new building standard lighting plan using T5 lighting technology. The end result here earned us an EPA Energy Star for Superior Energy Efficiency. The building rates in the top 93rd percentile, says Firtel. Overall, the company has been able to reduce our energy consumption within the building by 29.9% per occupied square foot since 2008.
The next steps for the property? To continue moving forward are to finalize our application for the National Register of Historic Place and potential LEED EB certification for the building, says Firtel.
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Natalie Dolce
Natalie Dolce, editor-in-chief of GlobeSt.com, is responsible for working with editorial staff, freelancers and senior management to help plan the overarching vision that encompasses GlobeSt.com, including short-term and long-term goals for the website, how content integrates through the company’s other product lines and the overall quality of content. Previously she served as national executive editor and editor of the West Coast region for GlobeSt.com and Real Estate Forum, and was responsible for coverage of news and information pertaining to that vital real estate region. Prior to moving out to the Southern California office, she was Northeast bureau chief, covering New York City for GlobeSt.com. Her background includes a stint at InStyle Magazine, and as managing editor with New York Press, an alternative weekly New York City paper. In her career, she has also covered a variety of beats for M magazine, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, FashionLedge.com, and Co-Ed magazine. Dolce has also freelanced for a number of publications, including MSNBC.com and Museums New York magazine.
