Financial District, San Francisco

Financial District
Neighborhood
San Francisco Financial District as seen from Buena Vista Park
San Francisco Financial District as seen from Buena Vista Park
Nicknames: 
"FiDi",[1] "Downtown"
Financial District is located in San Francisco
Financial District
Financial District
Location within San Francisco
Coordinates: 37°47′43″N 122°24′10″W / 37.7952°N 122.4029°W / 37.7952; -122.4029
Country United States
State California
City-countySan Francisco
Government
 • SupervisorJulie Christensen
 • AssemblymemberMatt Haney (D)[2]
 • State senatorScott Wiener (D)[2]
 • U.S. rep.Nancy Pelosi (D)[3]
Area
[4]
 • Total
0.460 sq mi (1.19 km2)
 • Land0.460 sq mi (1.19 km2)
Population
[4]
 • Total
9,447
 • Density21,000/sq mi (7,900/km2)
Time zoneUTC−8 (Pacific)
 • Summer (DST)UTC−7 (PDT)
ZIP codes
94104, 94108, 94111, 94133
Area codes415/6 28

The Financial District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States, that serves as its main central business district and had 372,829 jobs according to U.S. census tracts as of 2012-2016.[5] It is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law firms, insurance companies, real estate firms, savings and loan banks, and other financial institutions. Multiple Fortune 500 companies headquartered in San Francisco have their offices in the Financial District, including Wells Fargo, Salesforce, and Gap.[6]

Since the 1980s, restrictions on high-rise construction have shifted new development to the adjacent South of Market (SoMa) area surrounding the Transbay Transit Center. This area is sometimes called the South Financial District by real estate developers, or simply included as part of the Financial District itself.[7][8]

The early 2020s have seen high office vacancy rates in the Financial District, driven by remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among tech companies.[9][10][11] Several owners of office buildings and hotels have defaulted on their loans,[12][13] raising concerns about the effect on San Francisco's tax revenues and the financial stability of local government services.[14] Many retailers have also cited high levels of crime, open-air drug use, homelessness, doubts about San Francisco's viability as a relevant commercial center, and closed storefronts in the areas in and around the adjacent Union Square.[15][16]

The area is marked by a cluster of high-rise towers in the triangular area east of Kearny Street,[17] south of Washington Street, west of the Embarcadero that rings the waterfront, and north of Market Street. The district includes Northern California's two tallest buildings, the Salesforce Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid. Montgomery Street (sometimes called "Wall Street of the West") is considered the traditional heart of the district.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference cdata was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "Statewide Database". UC Regents. Retrieved November 5, 2014.
  3. ^ "California's 11th Congressional District - Representatives & District Map". Civic Impulse, LLC.
  4. ^ a b "Financial District (FiDi) neighborhood in San Francisco, California (CA), 94104, 94108, 94111, 94133 detailed profile". Urban mapping. Retrieved February 19, 2015.
  5. ^ "Demographia United States Central Business Districts" (PDF).
  6. ^ "Fortune 500". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-05-22.
  7. ^ "San Francisco Commercial Real Estate Market Boundaries--South Financial District". Archived from the original on 2017-03-08. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
  8. ^ Simonson, Sharon (March 4, 2013). "San Francisco City: Next 30 Years, SoMa Surges, Financial District Fades". The Registry. Retrieved December 27, 2013.
  9. ^ San Feancisco Chronicle Editorial Board (August 21, 2022). "Downtown San Francisco is dying. This bill could help save it". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved December 17, 2022.
  10. ^ Roland Li (August 13, 2022). "New York is roaring back from the worst of the pandemic. Why isn't San Francisco?". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  11. ^ Conor Dougherty; Emma Goldberg (December 17, 2022). "What Comes Next for the Most Empty Downtown in America". The New York Times. Retrieved December 17, 2022. On any given week in San Francisco, office buildings are at about 40 percent of their prepandemic occupancy.
  12. ^ Li, Roland (January 12, 2024). "Another big S.F. hotel defaults on mortgage — a bad sign for city's tourism industry". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  13. ^ Li, Roland (September 28, 2023). "More S.F. office buildings are defaulting on mortgages as real estate pain spreads". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  14. ^ Morris, J.D.; Rezal, Adriana (May 3, 2023). "Why bad news for downtown is also bad news for the rest of San Francisco". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 4, 2024.
  15. ^ Tori Gaines and Bailey O'Carroll (August 31, 2024). "San Francisco 49er in 'serious but stable condition' after shooting, attempted robbery in Union Square". KTVU. Retrieved September 1, 2024.
  16. ^ Sam Mauhay-Moore (October 21, 2023). "Walgreens in San Francisco's Union Square to close by next month". Hearst Corporation. Retrieved October 22, 2023. The store's closure follows that of several retail establishments around Union Square, including Express, Anthropologie, Gap and CB2.
  17. ^ King, John (June 20, 2006). "Kearny Street's timeless in its pedestrian way". San Francisco Chronicle.