French-Born Baker Buys Phoenix Hotel Site in SF for $9M

The San Francisco Baking Institute has bought nearly an acre of dirt beneath the Phoenix Hotel in San Francisco for $9.1 million — nearly $6 million less than its asking price.

An affiliate of the South San Francisco-based school led by French-born Michel Suas bought the land beneath the so-called “rock ’n’ roll hotel” at 601 Eddy Street, in the Tenderloin, the San Francisco Standard reported. The seller was an undisclosed family office.

Broker Mark Geisreiter of Newmark represented the seller, while brokers Will Cliff and Mike Davis of Colliers represented Suas in the deal, which works out to $10.1 million an acre.

The mystery seller listed the 0.9-acre site at Eddy and Larkin streets in January for $15 million, or $1.67 million per acre.

The Phoenix Hotel, built in 1955, wasn’t part of the deal. The two-story, 44-room hotel, which has a separate restaurant and lounge, has a ground lease set to expire in September 2025.

As the literal landlord, Suas can either re-lease the land to the hotel or pursue redevelopment — but likely not both, according to the newspaper.

Chip Conley, who owns the Phoenix, previously told The Standard he couldn’t see a way to preserve the hotel while building a new development, perhaps apartments, on its parking lot.

“The only way to do that is to use the parking lot, but developing there would be impossibly noisy for hotel guests,” said Conley, who in 1987 turned the former Caravan Lodge into the Phoenix, popular with such rock musicians as Kurt Cobain, David Bowie and Linda Ronstadt.

Reached for comment about the sale, Conley would say only that his hotel is “still open to business” and that he has been in touch with Suas.

Since the pandemic, the hotel has struggled with deteriorating street conditions in the Tenderloin, epicenter of the city’s homelessness and fentanyl crisis. Conley and business partner Isabel Manchester have called on the city to send more resources.

“Inside our little oasis, things have remained the same, and that’s why people keep coming back,” Manchester previously told The Standard. “The only thing that changed, especially last year, is everything going on outside.”

It’s not clear what Suas, a native of Brittany, wants to do with the property. The hotel site is zoned for up to 450 homes, with a density bonus, and has an 80-foot height limit, according to Loopnet, run by CoStar Group.

Suas, the French pastry chef who moved to San Francisco during the artisanal bread revolution of the 1980s and mentored some of the nation’s top bakers, founded the San Francisco Baking Institute in 1996 and co-owns Thorough Bread & Pastry and b.Patisserie in the city.

“I am thrilled to be the new owner of the land at 601 Eddy Street,” Suas said in a statement. “We look forward to the continued tenancy with the Phoenix Hotel’s owner and operator.”

— Dana Bartholomew