San Francisco Business Times
October 13, 2008 Monday
LENGTH: 615 words
HEADLINE: Hibernia mystery deal solved, buyer revealed
BYLINE: J.K. Dineen
BODY:
In one of the more mysterious San Francisco real estate transactions in recent memory, the Dolmen Property Group has purchased the historic Hibernia Bank building and plans to bring the baroque structure up to code and then lease it.
Dolmen Property Group Managing Director Seamus Naughten said the $3.9 million investment is a long-term hold and that the plans for the 1892 structure at Jones and Market streets are up in the air. He said his company would complete all necessary construction work to bring the structure back to life. He called the Hibernia "a very unique property with unlimited potential."
"We honestly don't have anything concrete to put in there, but we see the Hibernia as a gem of a building with oodles of potential," he said.
He said the building, which served as the San Francisco Police Department's Tenderloin station from 1991 to 2000 after the bank vacated it, could be used for social events or a cultural use, like a museum.
The sale of the bank building closed Sept. 10 and immediately set the city's real estate community abuzz, as everyone from brokers to historic preservationists to reporters to Tenderloin activists speculated and investigated who had snapped up the baroque bank, without success.
Naughten said Dolmen "tends to run a low-profile operation."
"It's not that we were trying to deceive anyone," he said. "Normally with any transaction we keep as low a profile as possible. It's just our style."
Designed by Albert Pissis and completed in 1892, the building "is one of the finest of San Francisco's uniquely superb collection of modified temple form banks," according to "Splendid Structures," San Francisco Architectural Heritage's guide to city buildings. The building has a stain-glass domed entrance and steel frame clad in carved granite, but has been frequented by rats, pigeons and crack dealers since it was abandoned in 2000.
Dolmen Property Group has developed mostly small to medium sized condominium projects in the Mission and Noe Valley, as well as an 80,000-square-foot commercial project at 2345 Harrison St. in the South of Market. The group developed the 32-unit Citrino condo development in the Mission District with Vanguard Properties.
The seller, Thomas Lin Yun, was represented by independent broker and developer Stanley Lo.
Naughten said his firm had the building on a short list of potential acquisitions for over two years.
"This is a long-term hold for us, while we do not have any specific plans for the space, except to preserve it. We do have some interested parties, who may ultimately occupy the space," he said.
Naughten said the property was well-positioned to benefit from other developments under way in the Tenderloin and Mid-Market districts, including Urban Realty's 250,000-square-foot CityPlace project near Sixth and Market streets and Trinity Properties' planned 1900 residential units, the first phase of which is now under construction at 8th and Market.
Jerry Burns, who worked with Dolmen on the Harrison Street project, said he used to bank at Hibernia and was glad the group had bought it.
"They always uphold their end of an agreement and they have the financial wherewithal to back up what they proposed to do," said Burns. "Anything they did there would be a significant improvement over what is happening with it now."
Asked what he loved about the Hibernia, Naughten said "the simple answer is, what is not to love?'"
"The architecture is second to none in San Francisco , except maybe City Hall," he said.
He said the fact that the principals of his firm were all born in Ireland was not a factor in trying to save what was once an Irish bank.
"We wouldn't let that get in the way of a deal," he said.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
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