CIM Group Sells Historic Office Asset in San Francisco

November 6, 2019

Built in 1929, One Tehama was renovated in recent years and is fully leased to SoFi.

One Tehama. Image courtesy of CIM Group

In its latest move, investment firm CIM Group has sold One Tehama, a 98,600-square-foot creative office building in San Francisco’s South Financial District. CIM Group declined to reveal a sale price or the name of the buyer. According to property records, the buyer was Bell Sound USA LLC.

The sale of the historic Art Deco building comes days after the company further expanded its Austin footprint with the purchase of a 270,000-square-foot creative office portfolio in the city’s Eastside market from real estate developer Peter Barlin.

Built in 1929, the One Tehama office property features Art Deco façade design, as well as 13- to 14-foot ceiling heights on the upper floors and a nearly 21-foot tall ceiling on the ground floor. The building is less than two blocks from the new Transbay Transit Center and Salesforce Park. It is also close to Interstate 80, as well as the Montgomery BART and MUNI station.

CIM Group purchased One Tehama, which is located at 246 1^st St. in downtown San Francisco, in early 2014 from Newcastle Partners. After the acquisition, the company began a thorough renovation of the building, including adding a floor by converting and expanding a first-floor mezzanine level, adding a roof deck and converting the basement level into rentable space. The building is currently fully leased to SoFi, a personal finance company that offers student loan refinancing, mortgages and personal loans.

The company has been an active player in markets across the country this year, buying and selling a range of commercial properties in the Los Angeles, Boston, Bay Area, Austin, Texas, metro areas, as well as Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C.

It’s been a busy month in San Francisco’s commercial real estate office market. Companies including Vanbarton Group, Meridian, CenterPoint Properties and Kylli, Inc., have all closed deals in recent weeks. Most recently, Kennedy Wilson acquired an office campus on a former Air Force base in Novato, Calif., a town about 25 miles north of San Francisco, for $115 million.