An approval on the record
The Planning Commission reviewed the 541-apartment tower at One Oak on 19 March 2026 at noon in Room 400 at City Hall. The commission adopted the zoning map amendment, the environmental findings, the Downtown Project Authorization and the shadow findings on a 5-1 vote, with Commissioner McGarry absent. The zoning map amendment raised the permitted podium height from 120 feet to 140 feet. SF YIMBY published the agenda item on 18 March.
One Oak sits on 0.42 acres wedged between Market Street and Oak Street, overlooking the Van Ness Avenue bus rapid transit lanes inside the Market and Octavia Area Plan. The approved project demolishes two non-residential buildings and a surface parking lot to build an approximately 508,000-square-foot residential building across 541 dwelling units.
The permit register behind it
Across the five contiguous lots at 1500-1540 Market Street, block 0836 lots 001 through 005, one new-construction permit sits on the city record: 201612094535. It was filed on 9 December 2016, carries an estimated cost of $156,880,000, describes 40 stories and 300 dwelling units, and reads filed status. The register holds no new-construction permit for the 541-unit design.
The fee cut that carried the feasibility case
The scheme is fully market-rate housing, and the sponsor pays an in-lieu fee that finances affordable construction elsewhere in the city. The 2024 filing, the June 2025 filing and the March 2026 report all state that the team used 2023-passed city legislation to reduce that fee from over twenty percent to 16.4 percent.
Neither filing reviewed here publishes the fee base, so the rate does not convert to a dollar figure. A capital reader can underwrite the mechanism and cannot underwrite the amount.
Five vintages on one parcel
Initial plans called for 319 apartments across 41 stories, designed by Snøhetta for Build Inc. In 2021 Build filed for 465 units. The iteration that Emerald Fund inherited carried 460 apartments across 40 floors. By 2023 the property had returned to the lender, Washington Capital Management.
In June 2024, with Emerald Fund and Washington Capital jointly responsible, the application filed 516 apartments across a 437-foot structure, 558,900 square feet, carrying 514,840 square feet of housing, 54,965 square feet of basement garage and 2,465 square feet of ground-floor retail, with a three-level garage for 135 cars and 237 bicycles. That filing described its own lift as a 12 percent increase, credited larger floor plates and kept the rooftop height fixed.
June 2025 brought 541 apartments across 41 floors and 691,400 square feet, carrying 529,800 square feet of housing and 51,700 square feet of garage for 138 cars and 210 bicycles. March 2026 kept the 541 count and published 595,000 square feet, carrying 419,300 square feet of housing, 53,100 square feet of parking and about 17,750 square feet of amenity space. The unit mix moved from 141 studios, 164 one-bedrooms and 211 two-bedrooms in 2024 to 107 studios, 266 one-bedrooms and 168 two-bedrooms in March 2026.
What the added units buy
The approved count is 81 apartments above the 460-unit iteration, an increase of about 17.6 percent computed from the two published figures. Land, entitlement work and the substructure carry the same site either way. Each added apartment spreads that base across more income.
The June 2025 filing puts construction above a quarter of a billion dollars, described as an estimate that does not include all development costs. Across 541 apartments, $250 million works out to roughly $462,000 of construction value per home. That figure is a floor for the cost of each home.
The height ladder in the record
The commission's findings describe a 14-story podium with a roof height of about 139 feet and a 41-story tower reaching a 400-foot roof, about 416 feet including mechanical equipment and 436 feet including the elevator overrun and rooftop screening. SF YIMBY used 437 feet in June 2025 and 436 feet in March 2026 for the same composite figure.
The parking and loading package
The approved project includes 135 off-street accessory parking spaces, three car-share spaces, one off-street freight loading space and two off-street service loading vehicle spaces, with 210 Class 1 and 27 Class 2 bicycle spaces. It builds Oak Plaza, a public plaza and shared public right-of-way within a portion of Oak Street.
What a capital reader can underwrite today
Two mechanisms in this file move cost: a fee rate cut to 16.4 percent and 81 added apartments on the same parcel. The approval date is March 2026. The file carries no start date, no completion date, no general contractor and no fee base. The permit that would begin the work reads filed status from 2016. The next record worth watching is a new-construction permit issued against the approved 541-unit design.