Old Federal Reserve Bank Building at 301 Battery Changes Hands and Becomes The Reserve

The old Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco building at 301 Battery Street in the Financial District has new owners. San Francisco developer Presidio Bay and its partner Bridges Capital took title from New York’s RFR Holdings through a deed in lieu of foreclosure recorded the week before the San Francisco Standard reported it on October 6. Connect CRE confirmed the transfer on October 7. The building will be marketed as The Reserve.

How the Building Changed Hands

RFR, led by Aby Rosen, paid $143 million for the building in February 2020, weeks before the pandemic shutdown, according to the Standard. The building sat empty through RFR’s ownership.

In July 2026, Presidio Bay and Bridges bought the loan on the property from Mack Real Estate for about $70 million, roughly half of RFR’s purchase price, the Standard reported. Bisnow and The Real Deal had reported in May that Presidio Bay was lined up to buy that debt. The new lenders then filed a notice of default, and RFR handed over the building voluntarily rather than going through a judicial foreclosure. RFR owed about $130 million at the handover, including interest and fees, per the Standard.

It is the second time the two firms have taken a San Francisco property this way. In February they took over 333 Valencia Street through a deed in lieu, the Standard reported.

The Building

George Kelham designed the Classical Revival building for the Federal Reserve Bank, which used it for nearly six decades. The Sansome Street side, at 400 Sansome, has the Ionic colonnade with “Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco” carved above it. Inside the Sansome entrance is Jules Guerin’s mural “Traders of the Adriatic.” The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (reference 89000009). Under a previous owner it was known as the Bently Reserve.

Reported figures for its size differ. The Standard describes eight stories with about 186,000 square feet of office space. Connect CRE gives 210,000 square feet for the whole property, and earlier trade coverage used about 208,000.

The building connects to The Jay hotel by a pedestrian bridge, according to the Standard.

What the New Owners Plan

The 28,000-square-foot Banking Hall is the centerpiece. The Standard reported it will serve as an event space for tenants, with access by invitation rather than open to the public. Connect CRE reported that the hall will also anchor an events and hospitality business run by The Main Post, a Presidio Bay sister company, and PLEASE Management, and that The Reserve is taking inquiries for event bookings.

Planned tenant amenities include a coffee and cocktail bar, a private boardroom, a whiskey lounge, a sports and game room, a music room and a fitness center, per the Standard. Phil Spiegel, who created Holbrook House at One Sansome, is designing and programming the lobby. No opening timeline for the amenities has been published.

Office leasing is being handled by CBRE. Most floors are ready to move into, the third and fourth floors are in shell condition for custom build-outs, and some floors above the fifth have private outdoor decks, the Standard reported.

“Our vision is to create a living landmark,” Presidio Bay founder Cyrus Sanandaji told the Standard. He also said, “The building has been restored to full health from an economic perspective.”

Why It Matters Downtown

The handover puts a vacant Financial District landmark back in the hands of a San Francisco developer. Citywide office vacancy is 29.3 percent, per Cushman and Wakefield figures cited by the Standard, while new leasing through the third quarter has already passed all of last year.

Presidio Bay is also unveiling The Spear at 88 Spear Street this week, a renovated office building with an underground spa and a rooftop restaurant, the Standard reported.

Visiting

The Reserve is an office building, and the Banking Hall is not open for walk-in visits. The building runs between Battery and Sansome streets, and you can see the Sansome Street colonnade from the sidewalk. For more of the neighborhood, see our guide to things to do in downtown San Francisco.

Photo: Niki Korth, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.