Fulton 555: Finally, An End In Sight & Buyer Incentives

Sep 28, 2021

It feels like 2015 was ages ago. Ed Lee was mayor of San Francisco. Fitbit, Box and Square were going public. Gentrification was a hot topic. Hayes Valley was a hotbed of new home construction and establishments catering to monied techies.

Fulton 555 was one of at least FIVE new developments in the neighborhood to begin selling in 2015/16. While 450 Hayes, 388 Fulton, Laguna Hayes and 400 Grove sold out their inventory in a matter of months, Fulton 555 would become ensnared in construction delays and scandal. By 2018, as many as 30 homebuyers with purchase agreements at the 139-unit building walked away from their contracts while the developer battled the city over design changes pertaining to the building’s signature glass panels. It later came out that the director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, being investigated by the FBI for fraud including allegedly accepting bribes from developers, had been approached to help move the project along.

After five years of being in limbo, construction of Fulton 555 was completed in 2020 and homes were again selling with regularity by the second half of last year. Fast forward to today, and the building is over 80% sold out with approximately two dozen units remaining (and about as many having sold since January 2021).

You can imagine the developer is ready to be done with this project. We know we would be! And in a push to get it wrapped up, home buyers are now being incentivized with $3,000 in closing cost credits and 6 months of HOA dues comped.

Meanwhile, at least one condo at Fulton 555 has resold and another resale listing is Coming Soon. That certainly doesn’t make the job of the developer’s broker any easier in getting the brand new units totally sold out. If you know new construction in San Francisco, then you know the purchase agreements almost always include a prohibition on resales — sometimes one year, sometimes two years, sometimes stipulating the developer’s right of first refusal — to try and prevent this exact situation from happening.

To add just one more chapter to the saga of this project: the sales team leadership is currently on its fourth incarnation. BUT to be fair, the six years this place has been trying to sell is longer than most agents in this city stay in the business. *lolz*

555 Fulton Street #516 is an upper floor courtyard-facing unit and one of the few 2-bedroom layouts remaining, marketed and listed by cooperating broker Compass. Listing photos below courtesy of SFAR MLS. Details here.