Low Vacancy, High Demand Drives Building Further Skyward

San Francisco Chronicle (February 17, 2015) Just when you thought there was no more room for construction cranes in downtown San Francisco, a new crop of office towers is sprouting on the city skyline. From Mission Bay to the north Financial District, more than 5 million square feet of commercial space is under construction or will be in the next 12 months. That’s more new office space than the city has produced in the previous 15 years combined. The bullish development is being driven by the usual cocktail of low vacancy and high demand — with a dash of San Francisco politics thrown into the mix, say developers and brokers. “I think people are past wondering, by a long shot, whether all the stuff under construction will lease,” said attorney Tony Natsis of the firm Allen Matkins, who negotiated many of the recent large tech leasing deals, including deals for Sales-force, Uber and Dropbox. “We just have too many ass-kicking companies in San Francisco.”