Forge Development to Buy Wells Fargo HQ in SF for $54M

Forge Development Partners is poised to buy the 409,000-square-foot headquarters of Wells Fargo in San Francisco for around $54 million, with potential plans to convert it into homes.

The locally based workforce housing developer has negotiated a price for the longtime hub for Wells Fargo at 420 Montgomery Street, in the Financial District, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

The pending deal works out to around $135 per square foot.

In December, the bank listed the 13-story building, which stands where the bank was founded in 1852. It also announced it would close its last history museum, after its C-suite decamped to New York.

Wells Fargo will move its official hub to 333 Market Street, where the firm two years ago renewed its lease for 622,300 square feet through 2032.

Forge Development, known in San Francisco for its portfolio of group housing projects, has become a champion of office-to-home conversions.

Early last year, the firm announced it would buy the 94,000-square-foot Humboldt Bank Building at 785 Market Street for $70 million, then convert it into 120 apartments, Real Tactics Pro reported.

The T-shaped building at 420 Montgomery, built in 1960, could host the largest office-to-residential conversion in San Francisco.

Despite intense public interest, the city has seen just two large-scale office-to-home conversions proposed in its downtown: the 120-unit project at 785 Market and another partial conversion proposed for the Warfield Building at 988 Market Street, according to the Business Times.

The latter project was called off earlier this year after the building was sold to the Community Arts Stabilization Trust and public radio station KALW.

Wells Fargo has shed half of its offices in San Francisco since the pandemic.

In April 2022, the bank moved out of a 34-story skyscraper at 45 Fremont Street in the Financial District, where it had occupied 146,500 square feet for two decades.

In 2023, it sold a 13-story, 355,000-square-foot tower at 550 California Street for $40.5 million, aiming to save money by shrinking its real estate footprint by 7 percent.

— Dana Bartholomew