Strada Investment Group Refiles Plans for 501-Unit Tower in San Francisco

• Strada Investment Group has refiled plans for a 45-story, 480-foot residential tower at 395 3rd Street in SoMa.
• The revised project would include 501 rental apartments, including 51 very low-income affordable units, plus 3,600 square feet of ground-floor retail.
• The roughly 608,500-square-foot tower would include a seven-story, 150-car garage and 239 bicycle spaces. The site last sold for $34 million in 2021.

What Strada Is Planning

Strada Investment Group is bringing its long-stalled 395 3rd Street project back into the development pipeline with a substantially revised proposal. The project would replace an existing parking lot at the corner of 3rd and Harrison streets with a 45-story, 480-foot rental tower containing 501 apartments. Strada acquired the property in 2021 and previously secured entitlements for a 524-unit version. The latest filing represents another effort to make the project financially viable as San Francisco's apartment market strengthens.

 

 

What The 501-Unit Tower Includes

The revised building would total approximately 608,500 square feet, including about 468,500 square feet of residential space and 3,600 square feet of retail. The apartment mix would include 58 studios, 287 one-bedroom units and 105 two-bedroom units, according to the latest plans. The proposal also changes the parking strategy significantly. Rather than the earlier below-grade garage, the new design calls for a seven-story podium garage with 150 spaces, along with 239 bicycle spaces.

What The Affordable Housing Plan Means

The latest application sets aside 51 apartments for very low-income households, down from the 84 affordable units included in the project's 2023 entitlement. Strada is invoking SB 423 and California's State Density Bonus Law to increase residential capacity and pursue a streamlined approval process. The developer previously said state density-bonus incentives were critical to increasing the project's feasibility. Strada founder Michael Cohen previously called financial feasibility the biggest obstacle to new housing production in San Francisco, saying city reforms gave the company greater confidence to advance 395 3rd Street.

What The Design Brings To SoMa

Henning Larsen and Multistudio remain the project's architects. The overall tower concept stays similar to previous versions, but the ground-level podium has been redesigned with perforated metal screening around the garage. Strada's own project page previously described the development as a high-rise residential project near Moscone Center, Yerba Buena, SFMoMA and Central SoMa, making the location particularly attractive for renters seeking proximity to major employment, cultural and transit destinations.

What Comes Next

The property remains in pre-development, and the latest re-entitlement filing does not establish a construction start date or final development cost. Strada's project page continues to list the development as pre-development. The timing is notable. Several stalled San Francisco apartment projects have begun moving again as rents recover and housing demand improves, creating a more favorable environment for developers to revisit previously unfinanceable projects. For landlords and investors, 395 3rd Street is another signal that San Francisco's dormant multifamily pipeline is starting to reactivate, although financing and construction costs will remain critical hurdles.