- By Patrick Hoge | Examiner staff writer
- Jan 24, 2025 Updated Jan 24, 2025 (SFExaminer.com)
Media, information and services conglomerate Hearst Corp. said Friday it is in contract to buy a 16-story office building at the northern end of San Francisco’s Financial District in a move that will give the company flexibility to develop a residential tower at its historic hub of operations in SoMa.
The purchase of 450 Sansome St., expected to close in February, will pave the way for demolishing part of the Examiner building — this publication’s home when it was owned by Hearst — at Fifth and Natoma streets to make way for a 400-unit residential tower, the last remaining phase of Hearst’s fully entitled project dubbed 5M, the New York-based company said in a press release.
The structure to be razed is connected to the San Francisco Chronicle building at Fifth and Mission streets.
The plan is thus to temporarily move The Chronicle and the separately run SFGATE operations to the new building, a class A structure at Clay and Sansome streets near Jackson Square that is home to Delah Coffee, Umpqua Bank and technology, finance and professional-services industry tenants, said Marty Cepkauskas of Hearst’s western real-estate division.
Hearst owns The Chronicle and SFGate. For much of its history, it owned The San Francisco Examiner, which is now owned by Clint Reilly Communications and operates out of the Merchants Exchange building at 465 California St.
Steve Hearst, vice president and general manager of Hearst’s western-properties real-estate division, said the 450 Sansome deal underscores Hearst’s continued long-term commitment to San Francisco and its positive outlook for the downtown area.
“Hearst’s history goes back to the 1850’s and we believe San Francisco remains a vital market for innovation and commerce, and this acquisition reflects our belief in the city’s long-term resilience and appeal as a destination for world-class businesses,” Hearst said in a press release.
The 450 Sansome purchase was one of two notable purchases of downtown commercial buildings to make the news this week.
San Francisco-based Empire — an independent record label and distribution-and-publishing company associated with Billboard Hot 100 record-holder Shaboozey — bought the roughly 100,000-square-foot One Montgomery building, according to the San Francisco Business Times, which cited multiple people with knowledge of the matter.
