950 Tennessee Goes Dark, 1/3 Of New Homes Unsold

The year was 2019. Time Out named San Francisco’s Dogpatch one of the 50 coolest neighborhoods in the world. Tech juggernauts headquartered nearby — Uber, Lyft, Dropbox, Pinterest, Adobe and AirBnB, to name a few — were buzzing with new talent. At the all-new Chase Center, the back-to-back NBA Champion Golden State Warriors had just begun their 69th season. This formerly industrial part of the city was in the midst of transformation, an exciting place for forward-thinking (and moneyed) young professionals to call home. And in November of that year, then-under construction 950 Tennessee began accepting reservations.

The hotly anticipated development designed by award-winning Handel Architects and comprising 100 impeccably curated condominiums was expected to be an easy sell. Gazillion-offer bidding wars were commonplace, real estate prices were soaring to new highs, and the cost of borrowing was cheap. As a measure of the market at fever pitch, the 69-unit 815 Tennessee project — located one block to the north — had completely sold out within months of its 2018 launch. Then, the pandemic hit and everything changed.

By the time construction of 950 Tennessee wrapped in Q3 2020 and move-ins commenced — almost a full year after sales began — less than 20 percent of the homes had active reservations. It would take until the end of 2021 for the development to reach 50 percent sold.

As tech companies pivoted away from offices, downsizing their space, going fully remote or relocating from the city entirely, 950 Tennessee‘s target home buyer disappeared. According to CBRE, office vacancy in San Francisco surged 600+ percent between Q4 2019 and Q2 2022. More than half the office space in some areas may become vacant when leases signed at the height of the boom expire over the next few years. The University of California Consumer Credit Panel estimates that more than 72,000 people moved out of San Francisco between January 2020 and September 2021 — most have not returned.

At any rate, if the secret to success is simply showing up then it’s no surprise that sales at 950 Tennessee have fallen off a cliff, with just 15 homes sold in 2022. Only eight new listings were published to the MLS this year compared to 30+ in each of the preceding two years. All social media managed by the sales team appears to have been abandoned long ago. The development’s website is still live — and a pop-up promoting “Limited-Time Credits up to $25,000” greets visitors — but it’s uncertain when it was last updated.

Then, last month, with 34 homes left to sell, all seven listings still active on the MLS were withdrawn, effectively halting public marketing efforts.

 

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All images on this page are identified as belonging to Polaris Pacific, the exclusive listing broker of 950 Tennessee. Images courtesy of 950tennessee.com.