Hamm's Building Changes Hands

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TMG Partners has won awards for many projects
including honors for “Best Mixed Use,”
“Best Office,” and “Best Historic Rehabilitation”.

March 17, 2014
Globe St
Hamm's Building Changes Hands

SAN FRANCISCO—TMG Partners, one of the Bay Area’s largest mixed-use property developers, and Alcion Ventures have executed the sale of The Hamm’s Building, a 12-story, 184,706-square-foot office building at 1550 Bryant Street in San Francisco.

The Hamm’s Building is delivered 95% leased to a diverse group of tenants, including technology companies such as Rdio, and Asana, companies founded by some of the original backers of Skype and Facebook, respectively; and Salumeria, the creation of James Beard Nominated Chef Thomas McNaughton whose other restaurants include Flour + Water and Central Kitchen. The sale price was not disclosed.

Located in San Francisco’s Mission District, the former brewery was originally built for the Rainier Brewing Company in the early 1900’s. It gained its namesake as the “Hamm’s Building” when it brewed Hamm’s Beer from the 1950s-1970s. Once topped with a giant neon Hamm’s beer sign, the building is an icon to many San Franciscans. The building sat vacant until a rehab in 1985 transformed the old brewery into an office building.

While various capital expenditures were made over the years, TMG Partners and Alcion Ventures purchased the building in 2012 and launched a comprehensive renovation program to further reposition the building’s creative space, investing approximately $15 million in upgrades to the property. Improvements include a new exterior brick façade, renovations of the common areas, lobbies, restrooms, and a renovated common meeting room and roof deck atop the building with dramatic 360 degree views.

“The Hamm’s Building is a very unique asset with a fascinating history.  We were pleased to be able to renovate and position it to be a popular choice for tenants on the south side of town for years to come,” said Michael Covarrubias, chairman and CEO of TMG Partners. “Tenants enjoy the building’s character, floor plans and location sought by today’s emerging technology companies.”

According to Covarrubias, the Mission District has benefited from its proximity to where employees are choosing to live, and its proximity to the SOMA submarket, “which has proven itself to be an attractive and vibrant location for tenants seeking space in San Francisco.” The industrial style space of the district, containing concrete buildings with high ceilings such as the Hamm’s Building, as well brick & timber space, began attracting technology tenants and other creative users looking for non-traditional office space during the dotcom boom. Today, major software and technology companies, including Advent Software, Adobe, Dolby Laboratories, and Zynga, have their headquarters there.

TMG successfully executed similar strategies at two other nearby buildings, 650 Townsend and 208 Utah, which also required extensive repositioning through renovation, re-branding, entitlements and leasing.

The Hamm’s Building has close proximity to public transportation, including the 16th Street BART station and multiple Muni bus routes. Moreover, the building is dog-friendly and bike-friendly, with a new bike garage and showers for tenants who choose to bike to work.

The Colliers International team of Tony Crossley, Frank Wheeler and Erik Hanson represented the seller. The buyers represented themselves.

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