BH Properties Picks Up Shopping Center on Fisherman’s Wharf

BH Properties is buying a 200,000-square-foot shopping center and parking garage on Fisherman’s Wharf following its $65 million purchase of Holy Names University in Oakland.

The Los Angeles-based real estate investor is in escrow to buy Anchorage Square at 500 Beach Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

The seller is Anchorage Holdings, an affiliate of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, based in the United Arab Emirates. The price was not disclosed.

The nearly 200,000-square-foot retail center and parking garage, built in the 1970s, has been plagued by vacancies, according to the Business Times.

The home of the popular In-N-Out Burger once hosted the city’s only Krispy Kreme doughnuts inside the complex at 353 Jefferson Street, which closed in 2021.

Despite the vacancies, Fisherman’s Wharf has been described as “crowded” compared to other San Francisco shopping and tourism districts.

Rhonda Diaz, a broker with JLL, said that a client described the Wharf as an “oasis in San Francisco” during a recent tour. It has “more regional visitors than before the pandemic,” she said.

“Many of the restaurants on the wharf are exceeding pre-pandemic levels, in particular projects like Pier 39,” Diaz said. “There is a perception of safety. They have security.”

BH President Jim Brooks told Real Estate Capital USA last year the company was looking to buy up loans from distressed properties around the country, ultimately to assume ownership.

Last week, BH made headlines by buying the nearly 57-acre Oakland Hills campus of Holy Names University, a Catholic college that closed this spring after 155 years. The $65 million purchase came just before a foreclosure auction, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

To complete the purchase of the 66-year-old campus, BH Properties secured $45 million in financing from Hankey Capital, based in Los Angeles.

Brokers David Klein and Jeff Moeller of Lee & Associates San Francisco are on the hunt for one or more educators to lease its campus buildings, according to the Mercury News.