Resident Warehouse

Webcor, LDP convert historic building in San Francisco's South Park

By Robert Carlsen

Salt Lake City-based Santa Fe Partners, having recently completed a historic warehouse conversion project in the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco, is gearing up for the completion of yet another conversion, this one also in South Park.

One South Park, a 35-unit high-end condominium project, is expected to be completed in the spring. Santa Fe Partners' other South Park project, 310 Townsend, opened its 45 condominium units this fall.

The general contractor for both projects is San Mateo-based Webcor Builders; and the architect for both is Levy Design Partners of San Francisco.

The five-story, 150,000-sq.-ft. building, formerly a 1920s-era tobacco warehouse at the corner of Second and Brannan streets, two blocks from AT&T Park, will also include a penthouse unit and rooftop decks with views of the bay and the city. The project includes a 35-space garage and 3,800 sq. ft. of retail or commercial on the ground floor.

Last month, crews poured three more floors of structural concrete and completed some steel braced-frame work. All structural work is scheduled to be complete by December and the building enclosure and weatherproofing will follow soon afterward.

Interior layout and framing began in October and will follow the structural work as it progresses up the building.

To give One South Park more livable space, Webcor said additional area was provided by lowering the existing first floor and inserting a new floor between this level and the existing second floor and by the enclosure of an existing railroad spur. Cutting two interior courtyards provides light and air to the residential units.

Seismic retrofitting was also part of the construction plan.

"The shoring required for the retrofit of the building was certainly a major challenge," said Brad Denney, Webcor's senior project. "Because of the age of the building, we had to be creative with the new construction working around some temporary shoring."

Denney said cutting two light courts in the square building was also a challenge as well as having concrete deliveries during the middle of the Giants baseball season.

"Site access in the city is always a challenge, but having hundreds of people walking by the project and stopping and watching us pour concrete can get a little crazy," Denney said.

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