A once desolate and prominently industrial part of San Francisco, Dogpatch and Mission Bay has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past two decades. As one of BUILD’s first projects, they purchased, entitled, and/or developed several multifamily projects in these neighborhoods when no one believed in the area. Additionally, BUILD’s founder, Loring Sagan and his wife have opened a cafe and restaurant there, igniting the neighborhoods’ amenities and retail. One restaurant, Piccino, has become a known staple of Dogpatch and is immensely popular among residents and visitors alike.
Timeline
Piccino
Build Founder and Principal, Loring Sagan, and his wife, Margherita, opened the original Piccino, a small restaurant dedicated to serving fresh, local products, in a storefront at the corner of 22nd and Tennessee streets in 2006. The restaurant was an immediate success and quickly became a hub of the neighborhood. In 2009, Loring and Margherita decided to relocate the restaurant a block to the west, in a decrepit 150-year old building that formerly housed a coal and feed barn and carriage repair operation, as well as two residences in which the current owners had been born almost 70 years ago.
The resulting project now encompasses 100 seats and is rated as one of San Francisco’s top 100 restaurants by Michael Bauer of the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, a coffee bar/bakery appears daily from behind a large sliding barn door. MAC, a high-end clothing retail store, and Dig, a boutique wine purveyor, are co-located with the restaurant as an example of how synergy creates critical mass. The “Yellow Building,” as it is called, is now a landmark building and heart of the neighborhood, as well as a destination for diners from around the Bay Area.
Homes at Esprit
BUILD acquired the historic Esprit Park headquarters in the Dogpatch in 2004 and proceeded to design, entitle, and build an adaptive-reuse that converted the brick-and-timber buildings into a 147-unit condominium project. The project included 6,500 sf of commercial space facing Esprit Park and helped trigger the renaissance of the Dogpatch. It was awarded Project of the Year when it opened in 2009.
Avalon Dogpatch
In 2013, BUILD acquired two properties in the Dogpatch in which they would go on to entitle and sell to developers. 2290 3rd St. was acquired after it had been involved in the San Francisco entitlement process for more than five years. Build optimized the site, completed the entitlements and redesigned the existing plans to create a more efficient project with 21 additional units.
Build also helped the San Francisco Opera optimize the value of their real estate assets and, in partnership with Avalon Bay, entitled a 338-unit residential community in the Dogpatch neighborhood. This site was originally a warehouse where the Opera built and stored its sets. The 600-foot-long building inspired a creative design from architect Jon Worden that broke the block into five smaller sections separated by courtyards. The new design fits comfortably in the neighborhood, blocks the neighboring freeway and creates open spaces for residents.
O&M
In 2017, BUILD completed the development of 680 Indiana St. The project consists of two architecturally distinct, but integrated buildings separated by a publicly accessible courtyard mid-block. On the southern side of the site, the “O Building” is organized around a central courtyard and features a dramatic two-story “porthole” opening in the front façade, while on the northern side of the site, the “M Building” is organized around a series of private, landscaped courtyards that open onto Indiana Street.