181 Fremont

Design

The slender mixed-use tower, developed initially by SKS Investments, rises 700 ft to the roof with 55 floors of offices and residential condominiums. A parapet/mechanical screen reaches to 745 ft, and a spire brings the total height to 802.5 ft.

The tower contains 432000 ft2 of office space on the lower 35 floors (from 3 to 38), and 67 condominiums on the upper 16 floors (from 41 to 57). The 39th floor contains residential amenities and a two-story open air terrace. Mechanical spaces are on floors two and 40. The building has a direct connection to the rooftop park atop the adjacent Salesforce Transit Center from the 7th floor.

Upon completion, the tower was the tallest mixed-use building in San Francisco, surpassing the nearby Millennium Tower, and the 2nd-tallest in the Western United States. It was also the third tallest building in the city after the Transamerica Pyramid and the Salesforce Tower. 181 Fremont joins several other buildings designed to catalyze the San Francisco Transbay development area.

History

In 2007, SKS proposed 181 Fremont Street as a 66 floor, 900 ft tall mixed-use skyscraper, with 140 residential units and 500000 ft2 of office space. The developers reduced the height of the project to comply with the parcel's 700 ft height limit, as detailed in the Transbay Center District Plan approved in 2012. This height limit was twice as high as the previous restriction. The tower's design was approved in December 2012, and the development site was subsequently put on the market by SKS Investments.

On March 29, 2013, Jay Paul Company announced that it acquired the development from SKS Investments and planned "to immediately commence construction" with completion expected in the second quarter of 2015. According to Bloomberg, the building would cost US$375 million to construct, including land acquisition costs. Demolition of the existing structures began in August 2013, with tower construction expected to begin in November. Official groundbreaking ceremonies took place on November 12, 2013, and the luxury residences were officially named Park 181. The name was later changed to simply 181 Fremont Residences. Jay Paul Company announced that the building would cost US$500 million to construct and was scheduled to open in early 2017. On September 20, 2017, it was reported that Meta Platforms would lease the entire office portion of the building to form a new San Francisco office that included the Instagram division.

As of May 2023, during what the San Francisco Chronicle described as "Downtown San Francisco['s] worst office vacancy crisis on record," 181 Fremont had a vacancy rate of 100%, with Meta (formerly Facebook) putting up its entire 435,000 square feet for sublease. Zendesk moved its headquarters to the building in 2024. On March 5, 2025, Strava moved into a new headquarters office on four levels of the space made available by Meta for sublease.

|File:181-Fremont-San-Francisco-Feb-1-2017.jpg|February 1, 2017. Installation of roof decorative structure in progress, window glass significantly complete on office floors. |File:181_Fremont.jpg|March 15, 2021

References

References

1. Dineen, J.K.. (May 11, 2018). "Skyscraper at 181 Fremont St. in SF offers luxury condominiums". San Francisco Chronicle.
2. {{ctbuh. 664
3. "Emporis building ID 307080". [[Emporis]].
4. {{Skyscraperpage. 67666
5. (December 6, 2012). "Executive Summary Section 309 Determination of Compliance". S.F. Planning Department.
6. "181 Fremont brochure".
7. (November 12, 2013). "Jay Paul Company Breaks Ground for 181 Fremont, a Skyline Defining High Rise in San Francisco's New Transbay Neighborhood". BusinessWire.
8. (November 30, 2012). "Latest SF Skyscraper Scoop: 181 Fremont Redesigned And Rendered". SocketSite.
9. "List of Tallest Mixed-Use Buildings in the US". The Skyscraper Center.
10. Dineen, J.K.. (September 3, 2007). "Another tower added to Transbay". San Francisco Business Times.
11. (August 8, 2012). "Mayor Lee Signs San Francisco Transit Center District Plan". City and County of San Francisco, Office of the Mayor.
12. Robert Selna. (1 May 2008). "Transbay plan would sprout new S.F. skyline". The San Francisco Chronicle.
13. Dineen, J.K.. (January 15, 2013). "Transbay site could fetch $75 million". San Francisco Business Times.
14. (March 29, 2013). "Jay Paul Company Acquires San Francisco Transbay Development Site". Press Release via The Registry.
15. Levy, Dan. (March 29, 2013). "San Francisco Tower in Tech District Said to Cost $375 Million". Bloomberg.
16. Dineen, J.K.. (August 28, 2013). "Jay Paul Co. starts clearing site for 800-foot Transbay District tower". San Francisco Business Times.
17. (July 20, 2015). "Jay Paul Company Announces Commencement Of Above Ground Construction At 181 Fremont". The Registry.
18. Li, Roland. (2017-09-20). "Facebook arrives in San Francisco with city's largest office lease in three years". San Francisco Business Times.
19. Adam Brinklow. (May 14, 2018). "Facebook eyeing entire Park Tower high-rise". Curbed SF.
20. Li, Roland. (2023-05-08). "Downtown S.F. has 18.4 million square feet of empty office space. We mapped every vacancy".
21. Li, Roland. "Exclusive: Former Mid-Market tech HQ to be auctioned after losing 80% of its value". San Francisco Chronicle.
22. (March 7, 2025). "Tech company moves HQ into SF skyscraper abandoned by Bay Area giant". SFGate.