The hearing that closed the permit appeal
The San Francisco Board of Appeals denied both appeals against the 570 Market Street hotel on Wednesday 17 December 2025.
The denial upheld the Planning Commission's Downtown Project Authorization for the 211-room tower. Planning Commission Motion No. 21806 issued on 11 September 2025. Record No. 2019-017622DNX. The permit stands.
The Board runs the city's final administrative review of appeals on permits and determinations. The decision closed the city process on the entitlement.
The two cases
The agenda listed the matter as items 6A and 6B. The two items were heard together.
Appeal No. 25-041 was filed by CPH 564, LP. Appeal No. 25-042 was filed by BCAL 44 Montgomery Property LLC. Both named the Planning Commission as respondent.
Both appellants hold property on the block. CPH 564, LP owns the Chancery Building at 564 Market Street, a seven-storey office building completed in 1923 and designated a historic building.
What the appellants argued
Each appellant challenged the issuance of the Downtown Project Authorization to Frontier Group LLC on 11 September 2025.
The Chancery owner argued that the tower wall would stand about one foot from its west-side office windows. Its brief listed blocked light and air, lost ventilation through operable windows, and harder office leasing. The brief stated that one third of the building's light well would face a solid wall.
The brief also covered construction. Noise, dust, vibration and emissions appear in it.
A third line of argument covered Sutter Street. The appellant stated that the street cannot carry a hotel generating heavy traffic. It stated that the commission treated the parking, delivery and tour bus exceptions as separate items and missed their combined effect.
The vote and the recusal
Vice President Lopez moved to deny the appeals and uphold the authorization. The motion found that the Planning Commission did not err or abuse its discretion and that the permit was properly issued. The motion adopted the findings in Planning Commission Motion No. 21806.
The Board voted 3-0-1. Three commissioners voted to deny. Commissioner Saroyan recused herself from both items.
The matter had already moved once. President Trasviña rescheduled it from the 19 November 2025 hearing to 17 December 2025, after a lack of quorum. Vice President Lopez was absent that night and Commissioner Saroyan potentially needed to recuse herself.
Five speakers are recorded. Anna Shimko appeared for the appellant in 25-041 and Brian Flynn for the appellant in 25-042. Melinda Sarjapur appeared for the permit holder. Corey Teague and Jonathan Vimr appeared for the Planning Department. Two members of the public spoke in support of the permit holder.
The steps before the denial
The project carries a dated record. Melinda Sarjapur of Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP filed the application on 1 October 2019. The Planning Commission motion names her as the project sponsor.
A Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration was prepared on 30 October 2024. The commission continued the entitlement items on 3 April 2025. On 1 May 2025 it denied an appeal against the declaration and approved the Final Mitigated Negative Declaration.
The commission approved the Downtown Project Authorization on 11 September 2025. CPH 564, LP appealed the declaration to the Board of Supervisors. That appeal was scheduled for hearing on 18 November 2025.
What the approved scheme holds
The authorization permits a 29-storey hotel of 126,333 gross square feet. It carries 211 guest rooms and 3,386 square feet of retail on the first and second floors. It holds a 4,211 square foot open space with a ground-level entry and a 15th-floor terrace of about 2,300 square feet. Sixteen bicycle parking spaces sit on the drawings, eight of Class 1 and eight of Class 2. The project holds no off-street parking space.
The site covers 7,045 square feet in the C-3-O Downtown Office district and the 300-S Height and Bulk district. The existing two-storey commercial building comes down. The record puts construction at about 24 months and the excavation at about 3,900 cubic yards of soil.
The permit carries exceptions from Planning Code sections 132.1, 152.1, 161 and 162. The project would use one on-street loading space along Sutter Street.
What the record still lacks
No construction start date is published. No building permit appears on the record for the tower. No general contractor is named. No construction lender is named.
The authorization runs with the property. It names no hotel brand and no operator for the building.
Anyone tracking this block should read the building permit and the construction loan as the next published signals.