The parcel, the partnership and the price
Parcel F sits at 542 Howard Street with F4 Transbay Partners, a joint venture of Hines, Urban Pacific Development and the real estate business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. The partnership bought the site from the Transbay Joint Powers Authority in 2016 for $160 million. The authority sold the parcel to fund construction of its Downtown Transit Center.
Markets of Tomorrow records the parcel at 180 hotel keys, 165 residences and 61 floors. SFist records 0.75 acres.
The obligation the partnership carries
The 2016 development agreement set a $70 million penalty against delivery of the tower. SFist reports the delivery deadline as the end of 2023 and the penalty as payable to the authority. The two parties later agreed a $40 million penalty paid in installments, with the first installment due 30 April 2024.
The partnership, known in the record as F4 Transbay Partners LLC, missed that date. The unpaid installment was $5 million, and the agreement reverts the partnership to the $70 million figure unless the parties agree other terms. A Hines spokesperson told the San Francisco Business Times the firm was working with its lender "to address the complex situation and financial commitments" on the development.
SFist states that whether the authority has demanded payment under the 2016 terms is not on the record.
The land basis and the loan against it
SF YIMBY reports an $80 million loan on the parcel, held as two $40 million facilities from JPMorgan Chase Bank and United Overseas Bank. Both lenders pushed the deadline through October 2023, and SFist reports the loan as maturing in October 2023.
SF YIMBY's July 2023 report, relaying the San Francisco Business Times, also carries a requirement that Hines pay the authority $160 million in quarterly installments from 2024 to 2027. SFist records the parcel and its entitlements as on the market since July 2023.
The capital the partnership announced
SF YIMBY reported in September 2021 that the firm had stated it would raise an estimated $1 billion for construction from JPMorgan Chase and UOB. Its December 2021 piece carries a construction start scheduled for the first quarter of 2022 and a two-and-a-half-year build.
The record carries no construction loan, no equity figures and no payment to the authority. Salesforce committed to the office floors before the city approvals and withdrew, in the fall of 2020 per SFist and in early 2021 per SF YIMBY.
What the room count would add
The room count moves across the record. SFist reports the 2016 vision as 200 to 300 hotel rooms. SF YIMBY reported 189 hotel guest rooms in December 2021 and again in July 2023. Markets of Tomorrow publishes 180 keys. The residences read 165 apartments in SF YIMBY's 2021 and 2023 pieces and 165 units on the tracker.
The scale reads the same across sources: 61 stories, roughly 957,000 square feet with 325,000 square feet of offices, 9,000 square feet of retail and 165 apartments. SF YIMBY measured the tower at 806 feet to the parapet on a 750-foot roof. Markets of Tomorrow prints it at roughly 800 feet. The tower carries city approvals from January 2020.
Engine's San Francisco page prices the market the rooms would enter. Its average nightly rate is $165 across 3.1 million public rate observations from May 2024 to April 2026. September prices at $192 and March at $197. December is the low month at $129. The year swings 35 percent, and San Francisco ranks 18 of 50 markets, eleven percent above the $148 median.
The stage the file has reached
The tower is announced, pre-construction, and the site has never broken ground. The tracker's milestone list carries two dated entries: the announcement and the penalty deadline missed on 30 April 2024. Its status note adds a redesigned plan approved by the San Francisco Planning Commission in June 2026, and that note's sole link is to a May 2024 SFist post.
The file publishes nothing the redesign changed. The approved scheme on the record stays the 61-story tower, with no building permit and no construction start attached to it.
Hines pledged $45 million to $47 million in low-income housing production at Transbay Block 4, $15 million above the base fee, per SF YIMBY's September 2021 report. SF YIMBY's July 2023 report carries Block 4 plans for 681 homes and retail in a 47-story tower.
Three filings would date the project: a building permit, a construction loan or a payment to the authority. None is published.