Conversion Lofts For Sale in San Francisco
Homes for Sale

Conversion Lofts

Conversion buildings with classic details like exposed timber, brick walls, and steel beams lead the way for the transformation of the South Beach and South of Market (SOMA) neighborhoods beginning around 1990 thanks to relaxation of the city’s live/work building code in 1988.

Loft conversions and construction continued until roughly around the year 2000 when the city again made substantial changes to the live/work building code. While most conversion buildings offer loft-style homes, this is San Francisco where you can generally count on at least one exception to the rule. It’s just in our DNA.

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1 Federal “A welcome respite” – Matt Converted from a warehouse in 2003, 1 Federal is home to 49 residences in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. It is a converted warehouse buildi...
164 Townsend St. Built around 1900 and converted to homes in 1997, the South Beach Warehouse is home to 12 residences at 164 Townsend in the South End district of the South Beach neighborhood. Notable features in the ...
355 Bryant St. Originally built in 1916 as a printing house and converted in 1992, 355 Bryant St. is home to 44 residences in the South Beach neighborhood. Notable features in the building include exposed brick and ...
650 2nd St. Originally built in 1923 and converted to homes in 1996, 650 2nd St. is home to 25 residences in the South Beach neighborhood. Notable features in the building include exposed concrete details includi...
Cape Horn Lofts | 540 Delancey St. Originally built as the SouthEnd Warehouse and converted in 1997 to the Cape Horn Loft Building. The building is home to 14 live/work loft homes at 540 Delancey in the Historic South End neighborhood ...
Clock Tower Lofts | 461 2nd St. Built in 1907 and converted to homes in 1992, the Clock Tower Building Lofts are home to about 127 residences at 461 2nd St. in the South Beach neighborhood. Built in 1907 and home to the Schmidt Lith...
Embarcadero Lofts | 300 Beale St. Built in 1937, converted to homes in 1998 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001, Embarcadero Lofts is home to 59 residences at 300 Beale St. in the South Beach neighborhood. No...
Esprit Park “Historic brick and timber details amongst lush and peaceful courtyards” – Matt Esprit Park is home to 142 residences built in 2007 at 810-900 Minnesota St. and 801-875 Indiana St. in the Dogpat...
Harbor Lofts | 400 Spear Originally known as the Hathaway Warehouse, this historic 1857 building is one of the six oldest buildings in the city and is a designated historic landmark. Harbor Lofts was converted to residential ...
Heublein Building Lofts | 601 4th St. Originally built in 1916 for a wine distributor, it was converted to homes in 1990. The Heublein Building is home to 85 residences at 601 4th St. in the South Beach neighborhood. Home sizes range from...
Jackson Brewery | 1489 Folsom San Francisco Historic Landmark #199 was built from 1906-1907 and again from 1912-1913 for the Jackson Brewing Company. Prohibition closed the brewery in 1920. The classic Romanesque revival brick bui...
Lighthouse Lofts | 1097 Howard Built in 1924 and converted to homes in 1998, the Lighthouse Lofts is home to 22 residences at 1097 Howard St. in the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood. Notable features in the building include the ...
Marquee Lofts | 151 Alice B. Toklas Originally built in 1920 as a Cadillac dealership, the Marquee Lofts building in the Van Ness Avenue Corridor was converted to residential use in 1998. Located at 151 Alice B Toklas, the Marquee Lofts...
Mullen Buildings Built in the 1920s and converted to homes in 2002, the Mullen Buildings are at 52 Rausch St., 60 Rausch St., and 73 Sumner in the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood. Home sizes range from about 600 s...
One Ecker Place | 16 Jessie Originally built as a warehouse in the early 1900s, One Ecker Place was converted in 2008 to 51 residences. The building is located at 16 Jessie Street in the north end of the Yerba Buena neighborhood...
Potrero Square Lofts | 701 Minnesota St. “A classic conversion centered around an open-air courtyard.” – Matt Built around 1900 and converted to homes in 1993, Potrero Square Lofts is home to 62 residences at 701 Minnesota in the Dogpa...
Sorg Printing Building | 18 Lansing St. Originally built in 1928 and converted to loft condos in 1997, the Sorg Printing Building is home to 28 residences at 18 Lansing in the South Beach neighborhood. Notable features in the building inclu...
Stagehouse Lofts | 465 10th St. Originally built in 1924 and converted to homes in 1998, The Stagehouse Lofts building is home to 18 residences at 465 10th St. in the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood. Notable features in the buil...
The Oriental Warehouse | 650 Delancey “Quintessential Conversion Loft Living.” – Matt Converted in 1996, The Oriental Warehouse is home to 66 residences at 650 Delancey St. in the South End Historic District of San Franc...
Toy Factory Lofts | 1 Rausch “#SOMA” – Matt 1997 conversion, home to 8 residences at 1 Rausch St. in the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood of San Francisco. 1 Rausch homes, known as the Toy Factory Lofts, are ...
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Map of Conversion Lofts


Most conversion lofts can be found in the South Beach, South of Market (SOMA), Yerba Buena, and Dogpatch neighborhoods although you’ll find a few buildings in other neighborhoods.

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Conversion Loft Neighborhoods

1288 Howard Built in 2021, 1288 Howard is home to 125 residences in the South of Market (SOMA) neighborhood at the intersection of 9th Street and Howard Street on the Northeast corner. Notable features of the bui...
360 5th Street 360 5th Street will be home to 127 residences on eight floors in the SOMA neighborhood. Notable features of the building include a landscaped fully interior courtyard, and a shared roof deck with cook...
H2O Lofts | 1247 Harrison Built in 2004, the H2O Lofts is home to 28 residences at 1247 Harrison St. in the South of Market Area (SOMA) neighborhood in San Francisco. Notable features in the building include an elevator and se...
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That's It?

Conversion buildings exist because a savvy developer saw some opportunities in the city building and planning code back in the late 1980s. We’ll spare you the long version, but the short version is that for a period of time it was possible to bypass most of the city’s ridiculously restrictive planning and building code approval process and make homes for people to live in.

As the name implies, conversion loft buildings were once used for something else. This limits possible neighborhoods for these buildings to those that have existed almost since the founding of San Francisco and were also once used for industrial/manufacturing (LPR in today’s planning lingo) purposes. Many conversion loft buildings were used as warehouses back when San Francisco was a town that made a living from trans-pacific and trans-American trade and transit. A few other historic building uses now housing:  a brewery, a home for the blind, a pharmaceutical manufactory, and a former Cadillac dealership.

Classic details like exposed timber, brick walls, and steel beams define the typical expectations of a conversion loft. The re-development of these buildings contributed to the transformation of the South Beach and South of Market (SOMA) neighborhoods beginning around 1990. Loft conversions and construction continued until roughly around the year 2000 when the city made substantial changes to the live/work building code effectively eliminated the ability of developers to convert un-used buildings to housing.

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