24-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Downtown bar owners will breath new life into 100-year-old S.F. building
A century-old San Francisco space two blocks from Union Square that last housed controversial French-Vietnamese restaurant Le Colonial has been sold to new owners.
Earlier this month, the roughly 16,300-square-foot building at 20 Cosmo Place, which sits tucked away in an alley near Taylor and Post streets in Lower Nob Hill, traded hands for $3.7 million to Calle 24 LLC, public records show.
The entity is linked to Juan Loredo and Jose Natividad, local bar operators who own nearby cocktail bar Persona, as well as Burlingame bars Barrelhouse and Vinyl Room. They did not immediately respond to requests for comment; it's unclear what their plan is for the space.
The two-story building's pricing shakes out to roughly $231 per square foot. Office towers that have been hollowed out by remote work in the surrounding Financial District have on average sold for roughly $300 per square foot, though some deals have traded for less.
Catherine Meunier and Dominic Morbidelli of real estate firm Maven represented the Cosmo Place building's seller, a private family that had previously leased out the building to Le Colonial.
Before Le Colonial, the building was the longstanding home of the original San Francisco Trader Vic's, which operated there from 1951 to 1994. Le Colonial debuted in 1998, the sister restaurant to one of the same name in New York City. In San Francisco, it later developed a problematic reputation; former Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho criticized in a 2019 review Le Colonial's recollection of Vietnam during the French occupation of the country as 'covered with the sticky film of racism.'
Loredo and Natividad's investment is likely to provide a much-needed boost to the surrounding neighborhood, which has seen businesses vacate and foot traffic wane in recent years.
When Le Colonial shuttered late last year, its operators blamed the area's slow post-pandemic recovery for the 27-year-old establishment's demise. Earlier this year, celebrity chef Tyler Florence pulled out of two high-profile cafe spaces in Union Square plaza after just 18 months, citing slow sales that resulted in losses of close to $300,000. (Acclaimed bakery B. Patisserie has since reopened one of the kiosks.) Saks Fifth Avenue, which anchored the corner of Powell and Post streets for more than four decades, is the latest business to call it quits.
But the city has also been working hard to change the narrative surrounding Union Square, which has been the focus of significant investment in recent years. The latest strategy to boost foot traffic by drawing locals and tourists to the battered shopping district involves a partnership with placemaking consultant Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, which has been hired to provide 200 days of programming in the area for one year.
Earlier this week, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a special financing district in downtown that includes Union Square and is aimed at spurring commercial to residential conversion projects, by diverting future property tax increases in the area into a fund that would cover infrastructure and other costs associated with development.
