The fine folks at Twitter—specifically, the benevolent Isaac Hepworth—sent SFist images of their new 10th and Market headquarters now in progress. Among the many niceties the larger, Tenderloin-adjacent office will boast? A garden, stellar views from reception, and more space for the growing social media giant. While still in its skeletal stage, the new offices will be a boon to the area. more ›

Staying sober in the Castro is like trying to stay sober in the Castro. It's quite trying, what with all of the bars and dealers within hinged-wrist's length. Enter the Castro Country Club, a tiny clubhouse, if you will, located on 18th Street that allows sober addicts to socialize comfortably within a queer space without getting ripped to the tits. The building housing the space was sold this week. So, does the club once again stand in a state of peril? Not likely. more ›

Forever 21, which last year signed a lease for the enormous former Virgin Megastore space at Stockton and Market, is about to get its second Union Square-adjacent store. The chain's spinoff brand, XXI Forever, which targets a "slightly older demographic," is going into the 53,000-square-foot space just a block away from Forever 21's flagship at 1 Powell Street. (Signage just went up this morning.) more ›

After almost a decade in Union Square, local lifestyle magazine 7x7 will pack up their staplers and Post-Its and move to SOMA—glorious, rad, joyous, dirty, homelessy, wealthy South of Market. The publication(s) will move into the old Chronicle Books spot at 680 Second Street, right next door to Ironside (home of the city's best Cuban sandwich.) But why the move? SFist asked Chloé Harris, 7x7's sparkling new executive editor, for more details. more ›

Mark Pincus, the Zynga CEO responsible for CityVille and a slew of other Facebook games that blew up your news feed in 2010, has listed two San Francisco homes on the market just before his wildly successful gaming company goes public this Friday. Pincus, you might remember, had a run-in last year with a possibly schizophrenic former stripper named Vera Svechina. Although Pincus got a restraining order against Svechina last February, there's some speculation that he's suddenly ditching his two lavish San Francisco homes — one in the Presidio and another in Cole Valley where the Pincus family has apparently been living — in order to get away from the persistant Russian stripper. From Zillow's report on the two listings: more ›

We want to be supportive of the Occupy movement. We do. But as with all things (and like most Americans), we bore easily. But we're trying to stay alert and remain positive as we read about today's planned rallies at "at least two" homes — one in S.F.'s Bayview district, and the other in West Oakland — where homeowners are facing eviction due to foreclosure between now and January. At least this is more on-message than Saturday's weird attack on Tacolicious! more ›

Neighborhood-specific Occupy protests are happening simultaneously today in four 'hoods around the city which organizers say have experienced the highest rates of "eviction for profit." 99-percenters are being called to gather in the following locations, starting at 11 a.m. in the Bayview, noon in the Castro, 1 p.m. in the Mission, and 2 p.m. in the 'Loin, followed by a "mass march" at 3 p.m. from Justin Herman Plaza. more ›

You've heard the unfortunate news, right? With a shiny new tech boom getting into full swing, apartment hunting in S.F. is once again a contact sport that may require you to maim a Zynga middle-manager just to get your foot in the door at an open house in the Mission. And today we get a report from the NYT/Bay Citizen on the burgeoning trend of landlords charging application fees — and in one documented case, at $40 a pop with 250 applications for a single swanky loft, a landlord stood to rake in ten grand before he'd even rented the place. more ›

Whoa. So remember how the rental market in S.F. around 1999 was at like 2% vacancy and you had to like show up to open houses with your last three bosses, your high school report cards, and a suitcase full of cash even to qualify to be a tenant? (If you don't remember then you still have your youth, and we salute you.) Well those days are just about back, according to the Business Times! Vacancy is now at the lycra-onesie-tight rate of 3.2% in S.F. proper, and 3.7% in the Bay Area, down from 5.9% in 2009. more ›

A former landlord of Giants star Tim Lincecum has sued the two time Cy Young Award-winner for allegedly wreaking havoc upon his Mission district apartment. The landlord alleges that Timmy trashed an estimated $200,000 worth of stuff. What kind of stuff? According to reports, among the destroyed items mentioned in the suit were “bedding, doors, carpet, pillows, kitchenware, linens, furniture, household appliances, art work, decorations, patio furniture, lights, lamps, and mirrors." more ›

Albion Castle is a historic building that once was the site of Albion Brewery on Hunter's Point, ca. 1870 until Prohibition, but was later converted to a residence in 1939. It's been on the market since 2009, and the original asking price of $2.95 million has been slashed a couple of times -- they're now down to the bargain-basement price of $975,000. (It was also on the market back in 2005 for $2M, when it also played host to the launch party for then new blog Laughing Squid.) The house, as you can see from MLS photos, comes complete with scary underground caverns and tunnels, hot springs, and a totally depressing dining room. more ›

The classy crooner may have left his heart in San Francisco, but now he's also leaving his home in Belvedere. As Curbed points out today, Bennett's lavish bayside estate is up for sale for a mere $27.5 million. more ›

After Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom used San Francisco to get to Sacramento, he has since ditched us for highfalutin Ross. (Yes, technically he is still a resident of Baghdad by the Bay, but...come on.) His Ashbury Heights home is now on the market, and you can buy it a little over a couple million, reports SF Weekly. more ›

The city's Fairmont hotel is being put on the market "after city officials failed to approve a proposal to convert some of the building to condos," reports Business Times. The hotel is currently owned by Oakland A’s owner Lew Wolff, investor Philip Maritz, and -- who knew!? --Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, the 26th richest person in the world. The plan, if you recall, was to nix the existing hotel tower, built in the 60s, to build residential spaces.The mighty hotel workers' union, however, got involved because it would've cost hotel jobs, which obviously it would have, and voted no on the thing. [Biz Times]
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Red Rock Island is just a pile of rock in the middle of San Francisco Bay, over near the Richmond Bridge, but it's a privately owned pile of rock that spans three different counties and is now on the market for a cool $22 million. As the NYT/Bay Citizen reports, the place was home to sea otter hunters in the early 1800s -- hunters who drove the Bay's sea otter population to near extinction -- and a San Francisco man named David Glickman bought the almost-6-acre island in 1964 for $49,500 with big development plans. He later sold the deed it seems, and someone is now flipping it for a nice profit, having once almost sold it in the mid-80s to "sex guru" Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Rajneesh was later deported, after his followers in Oregon contaminated some salad bars with salmonella, and that deal fell through. more ›

After becoming the target of the tech paparazzi and moving out of his last residence, the Facebook frontman has finally upgraded himself to a living situation befitting of a real grownup who is also very rich. Kind of like how he finally started wearing a suit and tie, even if it was just a show for the President. According to the RealEstalker Zuckerberg, who is well known for finding reasonably modest living situations on Craigslist (Bazillionaires: They're just like us!), dropped a cool $7 million on this Palo Alto 5-bedroom in the quiet-sounding Crescent Park neighborhood. RealEstalker gives us the verbal tour: more ›

It's not every day that the Business Times runs a story like this, so we we simply had to mention it. A fellow named Jack Hagerty closed on a condo unit last week at 32-34 Natick Street in Glen Park, and he's now trying to rescind the deal after receiving a disturbing email from his new neighbor. Hagerty has a son, whom he has shared custody of, and he's now freaking out and trying to get his $621,000 back after the neighbor (quite bizarrely) wrote to him to announce he is "a sexual enthusiast and enjoys leather sex." more ›

The ongoing saga surrounding developments at Mission and 21st Streets got a new chapter this morning when the SF Business Times reported Gus Murad has unloaded the former Giant Value property to Oyster Development Group. The new owners intend to follow through on Murad's original plan to develop the Giant Value as condos and retail space (a plan Gus has had some trouble with in the past). more ›

According to U.S. Census data collected over the last year, 8.3% of homes are vacant, or one in every twelve, which is a higher percentage than in any of the other surrounding counties. As the Business Times notes, "one of the most coveted places in the world to live in, has more than 30,000 empty homes... beat[ing] the statewide average of 8.1 percent or 1.1 million unoccupied housing units." And even though foreclosure rates in the East Bay are some of the highest in the country, Alameda County still only has 6.4% vacancy. [SF Biz Times] more ›

The Lower Haight's only true nightclub, Underground SF, is up for sale. In fact, the entire building can be yours for around $1.5 million. According to Haighteration, the owner is "looking to part with either the property, the business, or both." So, if you want to buy a nightclub and, say, change its name to something that isn't mentally-challenged (there's no logical reason to use "SF" in the name of an establishment that's already in San Francisco), check out this listing. more ›

Over at the national edition of Curbed they're taking a look at surprisingly nice homes for sale in bankrupt towns across America - and that includes our neighbor to the Northeast with the hooker problem. While real estate-minded folks might be looking at this as a homeownership bargain, we're reminded of Vallejo's efforts to curb prostitution by publicly calling out johns who cruise the city's streets. For some, that would be good reason to avoid this 4,000 square-foot mini-mansion (the prostitution, not the johns) despite a price tag lower than most San Francisco two-bedroom apartments, but we're looking at this as a potential business opportunity for an enterprising Madame: Just think of the brothel you could run out of there, is what we're saying. more ›

Roach motel owner, millionaire, and Tiburon resident, Richard Singer, has been arrested and is facing a ten year prison sentence, a $125,000 fine, and arson charges for allegedly plotting to torch his Oakland Menlo Hotel for insurance money. more ›

SFist's very own Andrew Dalton clears up some rumors about Medjool (a notorious rooftop Mission bar that privileged white twentysomethings loathe because another faction of privileged white twentysomethings enjoy it) over at Curbed. Namely, that owner Gus Murad plans on selling the popular joint. "Murad has, in fact, put Medjool and the attached Elements Hostel on the Market, but by all accounts he remains fully committed to the restoration project of the New Mission Theater as well as the Giant Value." So, there you have it. Breathe easy, Missionites. [Curbed] more ›

The lovely folks at Curbed have word that the famous 815 Alvarado Street house in Noe Valley, the Dream House for the Yerba Buena Center's popular annual auction, is on the market. And the price has been cut $640,000 to a still-expensice $2,325,000. more ›

Aw, this is cute: new homeowner Maureen Futtner seems excited to be moving in to her freshly-built home at 555 Bartlett, in the North SoCha neighborhood. So excited that she's throwing a Meet Your Neighborhood event this Saturday to introduce everyone to local businesses like Front Porch and Rosamunde. Curbed is asking if NIMBYism is dead, but at the risk of acronym overload how about we just call this upscaling of yes-in-my-neighborhood activism PLIMBY? Or "Please Look in My Backyard" if you're not in to the whole brevity thing. [Ex] via [Curbed] more ›

We know all of you are *riveted* by real estate news, but we thought you might like to know that sales seem to be picking up speed both in pricier and hard-hit zip codes around the Bay, and according to new data from ZipRealty, 6 of the 10 top zip codes in the country for home sales are right here. more ›

You've likely noticed that more rentals are being handled by brokers these days, as this is not a new trend. As the NYT reports today, often late to the game as they are, "the days of the Mrs. Madrigals are being replaced with a new reality," and to some extent this has to do with the tenant rights culture around town which has left landlords freaked out that they'll never be able to evict a bad tenant. Brokers, you see, promise landlords they can help them navigate this and offer screening services for tenants. more ›

Oh boy. We love us some upward growth. And how. While the City Planning Department completes its save-the-whales report (EIR) on the proposed 24-story structure at 350 Mission, yesterday they released renderings of what the new building will look like, with delightful results. more ›