Latest news with #CrockerBank
Bloomberg
16-04-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Billionaires and CEOs Bet on Cheap San Francisco Real Estate
In San Francisco's financial district, the One Montgomery building evokes the opulence of America's turn of the 20th century gilded age. With its Tuscan columns, marble staircases and bronze doors, the Renaissance Revival landmark once housed Crocker Bank, named after one of the tycoons who built the western portion of America's first transcontinental railroad. These days, the property exemplifies the city's shifting fortunes: Ghazi Shami, chief executive officer of the record label Empire, bought it in January for $22.5 million, more than 70% below its selling price only six years before.
CBS News
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
San Francisco music industry leader Ghazi Shami set to speak at new conference
The Bay Area is celebrating its history with the inaugural SF Music Week that will feature a keynote speech from a local industry leader who recently celebrated a monumental moment. In a high-rise overlooking downtown San Francisco, Empire, the largest independent distributor, publisher, and record label in the U.S., is thriving. The music label's founder, Ghazi Shami, recently graced the cover of Billboard magazine. The Bay Area native and music executive, whose father is a refugee, is the first Palestinian American from the region to achieve such a distinction. "It's very surreal because these are magazines we used to look at growing up as kids," Shami said. "We used to read them in the stores because we didn't want to pay for them. And then, now you're on the cover. It's crazy." But it appears Shami and his team have only just scratched the surface. Empire, which has contributed to the careers of stars like Kendrick Lamar and Cardi B, recently made headlines by purchasing the One Montgomery building for $24.5 million — a full-circle moment for Shami. "We're standing on a marble floor, in a building that I could only dream about when I was a child, that will become our future headquarters. Hopefully in the next two years after the construction is done," Shami said. "But this used to be Crocker Bank. When I was a kid, my mom used to take me to Crocker Bank to do deposits. So to fast forward many years later, to be standing in a building that I used to fill out pieces of paper and run around in as a child is very surreal and very special." As San Francisco Music Week -- an event put on in partnership with the Noise Pop Music Festival, SF Live and the SF Office of Economic and Workforce Development -- unfolds this week, Shami, a music producer with a background in technology, took center stage as the keynote speaker. "You have every genre, music that touches the four corners of the earth, that all started here in San Francisco," Shami said. "In a city that has always been known for cultural diversity, inclusion, and has always pushed the envelope on being progressive." "I'll do whatever it takes. I'll put the city on my back in any way, shape, or form possible," he said. It's this kind of creative passion that continues to fuel Empire's ascent, keeping both the label and San Francisco on the rise.
