Blue Shield Renews, Expands at 50 Beale St.

Founded in San Francisco in 1939, Blue Shield of California has been headquartered at 50 Beale Street since 1996. Approximately 900 of the non-profit health plan's 4,500 employees are housed in the building. Blue Shield was close to moving to One Front Street about 18 months ago and actually had a lease out for signature, but the deal fell through, according to local industry sources.

Edward Grammens and Monica Finnegan of Trammel Crow Company and Liberty Greenfield representative Ken Gilbert represented Blue Shield in the transaction. John Cecconi of The CAC Group represented Beacon Capital. Simon Adams and Charles Seaman of Reed Smith LLP's San Francisco office acted as outside legal counsel for Blue Shield while Eric Shelby and Alain R'bibo did the same for Beacon Capital. Grammens, Finnegan and Cecconi were not immediately available Monday for comment.

Blue Shield occupied floors 16-23 plus a portion of the ground floor and a portion of the basement. Local industry sources tell GlobeSt.com that Blue Shield plans to renovate its entire leasehold over the next two years on a floor-by-floor basis, using its new floor, the 14th, as a swing floor. Blue Shield may also temporarily use one additional floor to support the renovations, which could take as long as two years to complete, sources say.

Due to the renovation effort, Blue Shield has reportedly been given a substantial amount of free rent on the additional floor it has leased. In addition, Beacon Capital Partners is paying for an undisclosed portion of the renovation work. Blue Shield has retained HOK as its architect for the project.

Blue Shield's largest neighbors in the building are the University of California at San Francisco, which leases about 90,000 sf in the building, and Bechtel, which leases about 100,000 sf. Bechtel originally developed the building as its headquarters.