ORH 60th Floor: Floor Plans
From a plugged-in tipster:

As of [yesterday] afternoon, the last contract holder of one of the 4 [penthouses] on the 60th Floor at [One Rincon Hill] canceled on their 2006 Reservation.

ALL 4 Penthouses are now back on the market, and the whole floor prices out just under $13MM. ALL 4 of these PH’s were reserved on the sales offices opening night of 2006.

We haven’t yet been able to confirm, so for now we’ll just have to consider it a “random rumor” (but we do trust this tipster). And yes, it might be time to get those “One Gincons” flowing again in the sales office. Of course that’s assuming they aren’t already…
UPDATE: Confirmed.
First Impressions: One Rincon Hill Sales Center [SocketSite]
The “Signature Cocktail” Of One Rincon Hill [SocketSite]

40 thoughts on “The SocketSite Scoop: Four ORH Penthouses Back On The Market”
  1. Can we all now just agree that this is not a ORH specific problem but a national financial crisis? I’m tired of the petty name calling.

  2. No, its ORH specific. Just take esther’s posting from yesterday — her TIC in Pac Heights is DEFINITELY up $100k since she bought in ’05. No doubt about it.
    These $13M penthouse buyers are nuts for walking out on their deposits. I’m sure the whole floor will sell for $20M in a week to a wealthy overseas buyer who had Google and VMWare options AND is a long-term investor. He’s so rich that he will plate the whole place in 24K gold, no actually it’ll be platinum or maybe Uranium, and then throw wild coke parties for 300 imported Russian models that he flys in on his Airbus A380 all at once and chauffers to the shag pad in a fleet of Bentleys. There is no financial crisis. RE prices are not declining. Prices only go up! Up, I tell you Up!!!

  3. “Can we all now just agree that this is not a ORH specific problem but a national financial crisis?”
    I’m game as long as we can all agree that prices have been falling rather than rising in both ORH and San Francisco over the past couple of years. I’m tired of all the denial.

  4. If it’s true that all four units can be purchased and combined, it’s a fantastic opportunity for someone to have a one-of-a-kind, trophy property– depending, of course, on price.

  5. “There’s only one cause for all of this: all the negativity on Socket Site.”
    I can still remember when f**j had one of his episodes and basically accused me being engaged in a nefarious plot to tank the real estate market by posting snarky comments and insightful economic analysis to obscure real estate blogs so that I could fulfil my sick twisted desire to kick widows and orphans out into the snow and take their homes for pennies on the dollar.
    Ah, good times. 😉

  6. 13MM isn’t bad for all four, when you consider the other PH’s being sold in other towers around town. I’d be happy with two put together, heck even one. It’s a little dissapointing that the PH units dont boast special floorplans, but instead are just part of the same stacks below. At this price there is a unit I sa cancelled a while back thats on the 55th floor stack 2 that has a 20x30ft outdoor terrace. Its the only one in the building that has that kind of outdoor space. I’d that that over one of these PH’s.

  7. I wonder if they will let us trade our low floor unit for one of these? Even exchange?
    These have got to be pretty cool – north facing units can see the Golden Gate Bridge and perhaps even the Marin Headlands, South facing may see as far as the town of Fremont on a clear day. A view whore’s wet dream indeed. Wouldn’t it be lovely!

  8. As our resident denial expert, I’m waiting for paco to tell us that he put in bids for these penthouses only to be severely overbid. But, he’ll keep at it because all the money is in real estate, doncha know?

  9. last week my friends went up there (I am always too chicken to break the rules so I stayed on their floor). you’re not supposed to go up there, but there’s nothing stopping you from pushing 60 and going up and looking around. Just some construction guys sometimes.
    They’re still pretty much unfinished.
    a few things:
    1) they are basically the same as the units below, but bigger.
    2) due to ORH’s commanding location, the view isn’t that much better than rooms on floors below. (at least not that much better than the view from the 45th floor and up)
    (other buildings are surrounded by tall buildings, so the penthouse can get you up above that… or it’ll have a rooftop deck or something, but ORH is alone out there so basically all the floors have unobstructed views)
    Thus, I didn’t see any reason why the penthouses in this particular building should command penthouse premium, since they are largely the same as properties below.

  10. Are the deposits refundable? I read that a few months back on SS.
    [Editor’s Note: According to the sales office they’re not (even if they resell the unit for a gain). And it’s a matter of contention.]

  11. Did Socketsite reader, SkyGuySF walk away from his penthouse unit? I remember how excited he was about moving in and planned to live there for some time.
    San FronziScheme, funny as it may sound; Socketsite has a negative impact on ORH. I bet several readers were interested in the building but got scared away from the things they read on this site. How many readers read Socketsite daily again?
    For One Rincon Hill why dont they just stop the sales and finish up the building? The place still looks like its still not half done!

  12. “Did Socketsite reader, SkyGuySF walk away from his penthouse unit?”
    I think Skyguy’s unit was on the 59th floor and I remember a recent post saying he was about to close. I’m not certain, but I think that’s the case.
    Ex-SFer – interesting point about views not being too different from the 45th floor to the top. Not sure which unit your friends have, but if it faces north, is one still able to see the Golden Gate Bridge? For the southern views, I can see where the additional height may not seem that dramatic.

  13. SS, I should have said “I thought I had read”. My bad. You can remove the posting if you wish for honesty’s sake.
    As far as the influence of SS on ORH buyers, it has as much merit as the claims that shorts are responsible for the financial meltdown.
    Shorts and bears are essential to the proper functioning of a market. Otherwise, how do you find the real market value of a house or a stock?
    A product that is right priced should sell itself on its own merits.
    People are not intrinsically unwise. Everyone know value when they see it.
    And if Salesmen have to embellish/stage a property to command a higher price, then it’s only fair game that bears take some of their air out by pointing out flaws in a specific situation. It evens the playing field somehow.

  14. A property’s value is what someone is willing and able to pay for it at a specific time and date. Everything else is meaningless.
    I agree 100%. The median trend follows fundamentals. Salaries, debt supply, shifts in demographics, basic supply and demand. No market perfectly follows the trend, they tend to go over or under. Right now, I feel we’re going back to the trend line and we might overshoot due to negative market psychology just like we overshot on the way up. That’s where value can be found.

  15. “A property’s value is what someone is willing and able to pay for it at a specific time and date. Everything else is meaningless.”
    I disagree with that statement. That is what salespeople hopes you believe. There is a difference between Price and Value.
    Value = Perceived Benefits Received divided by the Perceived Price Paid

  16. Yeah, it all depends on your definition of value. Realtors equate value with sale price. Another definition is the benefits provided by a product.
    In general, the first oscillates around the second one. You can’t fool fundamentals forever.

  17. The views may be stellar, but what buyer in this price range will put up with the cheap hallway finishes, the pathetic entry statement, the miniscule gym, the unfinished pool and the appalling parking situation? Comp to St. Regis? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Remember, this developer built 88 King Street if you want to see some crap.

  18. Remember, this developer built 88 King Street if you want to see some crap.
    I didn’t realize that. 88 King is junk, and the units took forever to unload. Sounds like they are in over their heads.

  19. Anna asks, SkyGuy?
    Yes, my secret identity has been revealed! 🙂
    It has been a long haul, signing the contract last November and closing in mid-September, with a great deal of planning and designing in between. I kept in close contact with the Sales Office, and more recently the Management Office, and they have all been easy to work with, answering my questions as they were able; it’s not as if they were personally installing the fixtures, floor by floor, and as a programmer, I tend to have a lot of questions. But in the end, the closing was only 2 weeks later than what they had estimated back in November. We’ve had Mars shots that weren’t that accurate.
    The walk-through went well; a few things needed to be fixed, and they were promptly fixed. The parking valets, the Front Desk staff, the Security staff, and the Management Office have been friendly, helpful, and patient. Yes, there’s still a lot of dust and construction, but there’s also a steady stream of moving activities; mine alone took more than the reported 5 days, if you count from the day I moved my personal stuff from across town, so some of that dust is mine.
    Hallway dust aside, the unit itself is a gem. They did a great job installing the flooring, tiles, and countertops. Even the views offered some surprises: from the balcony, you can see the beginning of the Bay Bridge, and from the master bedroom, you can see the first tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, a wider vista than I had expected. Of course, I can see everything in between: a Bay filled with ships, large and small, both AT&T Park and Candlestick, City Hall, fog clinging to the Twin Peaks, St. Ignatius on the horizon, and the Pacific Ocean behind it. At night, it’s a zillion twinkling lights… you get the idea.
    The day I closed, they were working on the pool. I asked the city traffic engineer who works on the intersection of First and Harrison about the left-turn signal on First, and he said they’re re-doing the signage this week to clarify that you can use the leftmost lane to enter the ORH driveway. In other words, new construction of this magnitude just takes a long time to “finish.” While some socketsite readers seem to feel that the unfinished state is a sign of trouble, I see constant activity, and I regard it as a positive sign.

  20. Skyguy: A google programmer with a house in Noe Valley too (a “pied a terre”)! haahahahhaa!
    Does anyone really doubt my lazy google indicator anymore? 🙂

  21. “Great looking unit. Doesn’t feel like One Rincon.”
    J – not quite sure what you mean. The color scheme mirrors the unit in the sales office and the lobby to some degree. The living room has a similar view to our unit, albeit 40+ floors higher. Then again, I suppose most units don’t budget for a large piano and custom design, so fair enough.
    Anon – Still here with the ORH smack? There is such a lack of transparency and honesty at the Infinity that a resident will examine ALL doors on ALL 30 floors of tower I just to get an accurate number of the actual closings. Plus you have another 350+ units at Tower II yet to be sold. To quote John McEnroe “You cannot be serious!” Time to focus on your own issues!

  22. Ryan asks, What made you choose that unit of any other one be it on the 59th floor or any other floor?
    The first thing the sales agent and I agreed on was that I would need a 2-bedroom place because of the piano, and 2-bedroom-plus-den was even better. We looked at floor plans for several units, on various floors. I even considered — briefly — a 3-bedroom unit where I would knock out a wall to make a larger living room, but I soon came to my senses about that.
    The more I looked at this one, the more I liked the layout: the curved wall, the separation between the master bedroom and the guest bedroom, the den as office, and being on the sunny side of the building.
    The fact that it was on 59 was just lucky timing. As I’ve mentioned before, I was not the first person to sign a contract on this unit. But I like living in tall buildings, so the high floor was appealing.

  23. Ex-SFer – interesting point about views not being too different from the 45th floor to the top. Not sure which unit your friends have, but if it faces north, is one still able to see the Golden Gate Bridge? For the southern views, I can see where the additional height may not seem that dramatic.
    My friends are between 45th and 50th floors, but I also saw an apt above 55th floor (and one down lower).
    From the 45-50th and also the 55th floor you can see the GG bridge. but it’s not an unobstructed view. Although it is visible easily with the naked eye, you see it snaking between buildings. So I wouldn’t call it a GG view.
    I didn’t go up and look from the penthouse (too chicken) so maybe it is stunningly better from there, but I don’t think it’ll be that stunning just due to the distance. all COMPLETELY supposition on my part.
    Regardless: the views from ORH are stunning. anybody who says otherwise hasn’t been there. There are drawbacks to the building (construction still ongoing, gym is major disappointment so I hope the other gym is built), but hopefully some of them will be rectified as the building is finished. overall I think of it as a welcome addition to San Francisco.

  24. I’ve seen it. You can see the GG bridge but as ex sf-er says it’s distant. It’s nice and you can see the hills around it in the bridge but its a little far off to be a super dramatic vista. The cool thing is from certain corners you get bay+ gg views+ tons of San Francisco landmarks. you have to be high up tho and the 2nd tower will obstruct views from 55 or so down maybe higher. assuming its built.

  25. Skyguy,
    Congrats on your purchase. Random question – How did you get your piano up there? I’m pretty sure it doesn’t fit in the regular elevators, so you probably used the freight elevator? Was it large enough to fit the piano comfortably?
    In terms of being on the sunny side of the building, there’s no question that the SW quadrant is warm in summer and will probably retain a fair amount of heat in winter [relatively speaking] given the sunrises and partial sunsets [you may see almost ‘full sunsets’] visible from these units.

  26. Recent ORH buyer asks, How did you get your piano up there? There’s no mystery. I used a moving company (Super Movers). Actually, grand pianos aren’t that hard to move. They turn it on its side and remove the legs and pedals, leaving a box that’s 7 feet long by 5 feet high by 2 feet wide: not impossible to maneuver on a dolly. The freight elevator wasn’t available, for some reason, so it came up in the regular elevator, as did all the rest of the furniture. The piano weighs 900 pounds, which may seem like a lot for an elevator until you compare it to, say, five big guys. Any elevator could handle that. There was even an article in the Chronicle, a while back, about the ORH elevators. They’re amazing.
    Speaking of the Chronicle, if you read the article about my move on sfgate.com and have seen the comments posted there (the usual mix of political and non-political) and you, too, were curious about the strange lights behind the pillows in my living room and bedroom, let me assure you that those were strobes placed there by the photographer for dramatic effect. (Looked funny to me, too. 🙂 And just to be clear, I never owned a home in Noe Valley; I rented a 1-room studio apartment there for the past several years, for weekends in the city, and I moved there full time after I sold my Sunnyvale condo in May (I thought it might take a couple of months to sell. It sold in 2 days!), and I stayed there until I moved in to ORH. The sfgate commenters’ notion that I’m awash in houses is strange, as is the notion that every resident of ORH and Infinity is evil. (Well maybe some of you are. 🙂

  27. SkyGuy:
    Just curious, which Yamaha do you have? What do you think of it? I have wished, now that I study with a teacher and play a lot, that I had not purchased my C2 grand.

  28. The views may be stellar, but what buyer in this price range will put up with the cheap hallway finishes, the pathetic entry statement, the miniscule gym, the unfinished pool and the appalling parking situation?….
    I completely agree. The building is much lower quality than what they initially sold. When the market sucks and you already have money sunk in what else do you do but cut the finish quality to make up?
    And the gym is an absolute insult. The gym in my 70s apartment building had better equipment than that!

  29. In terms of the quality of the finishes, I beg to differ. Those with an eye for details have most probably noticed the teak and ash wood used in the lobby, the elevator areas and within the evelators themselves. All of the boards used are hand selected and apparently its quite a job to get the grains to match so perfectly, and quite expensive as well. Certainly my preference versus some of the stark, cold lobby areas at other the unmentionable towers. Common areas, despite extensive delays, I think will also surprize on the upside.

  30. “Those with an eye for details have most probably noticed the teak and ash wood used in the lobby, the elevator areas and within the evelators themselves.”
    I do not want to be mean but you got to be kidding yourself. Have you ever stepped foot in another building? Obviously not. The quality of ORH is on par with upscale college housing.
    Perhaps all the dust is warping your senses.
    Anybody who is thinking of buying should touch and feel the place first. But I’d surely wait until it the building is finished. Otherwise you might feel ripped off.

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