Proof School to Occupy Empty Offices in San Francisco

San Francisco’s embattled office landlords have found new occupants to keep the lights on: high school students.

Proof School, a private academy for middle and high school students, has leased 35,000 square feet across the first and second floors at a 16-story office building at 221 Main Street, in the south Financial District, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Terms of the deal with landlord Columbia Property Trust, based in New York, were not disclosed.

Sam Vendervelde, head of the 10-year-old private school, said it caters to “students who love math” and plans to move into the former offices by the 2026-2027 academic year.

The school will relocate from its South of Market home at 973 Mission Street, where it takes up 16,500 square feet and approaches the end of its lease.

Proof School will more than double its footprint in Downtown San Francisco as it works to grow its student body to 170 students over the next three to five years, Vandervelde told the Business Times.

The move to 221 Main was made possible because of the current “real estate cycle,” the headmaster said, which may mean decreasing rents as a result of high office vacancy and a shift to remote work. Office vacancy in San Francisco is close to 37 percent, according to CBRE.

“As negotiations moved along, it became clear this was a real possibility,” Vandervelde said.

The pricing reset has opened the door to nonprofits, schools and arts and cultural institutions.

Outgoing San Francisco Mayor London Breed has tried to draw colleges and universities to Downtown as part of a plan to breathe life into the city’s commercial core with a mix of uses.

Proof’s student body might be slightly smaller — and perhaps younger — than the institutions the Breed Administration had in mind, according to the Business Times.

Other tenants in the 390,000-square-foot building include Docusign, which last year re-upped for 93,000 square feet for its headquarters, and online lender Prosper, which leased offices for its hub in 2014.

Columbia is nearing completion on “an expanded amenity program,” according to a statement, and has signed small leases with tenants such as the National Venture Capital Association and Primer, an AI company, according to an unidentified source

Columbia bought the building in 2014 for $229 million, or $587 per square foot. In 2020, the investor sold a 45 percent interest to an undisclosed joint venture partner for $180 million, according to regulatory filings.

At the end of 2021, the New York-based real estate investment trust was acquired and taken private by PIMCO.

— Dana Bartholomew