Can a brand-launching hotel that was almost five years in the making still be ahead of its time?
It's a question that Proper Hospitality president and co-founder Brian De Lowe was happy to discuss in the context of last September's opening of his San Francisco Proper luxury-lifestyle hotel in a part of town that continues to evolve.
In recent years, San Francisco has pushed for redevelopment in a land-constrained area of town wedged between the Civic Center and Tenderloin neighborhoods that's long been known for blight.
With financial incentives drawing companies like Twitter, Dolby Laboratories and credit card-processing company Square to relocate their headquarters there, developer Kor Group and its Proper Hospitality division, which is headed by Viceroy Hotels alumni, saw an opportunity with the old triangular Renoir Hotel site, which Kor acquired in 2013.
As a result, while the Proper brand debuted in 2016 with a luxury-residential property in Hollywood, the San Francisco property is Proper's first pure hotel.
"We saw ourselves as a catalyst for the neighborhood," De Lowe said.
The location isn't without its risks. While nearby enterprises including Huckleberry Bicycles, the gastropub Fermentation Lab and the David Rio Chai Bar reflect the area's newer money, the area remains somewhat scruffy.
"That part of town had been a puzzle for city leadership for a long time," said Julie Purnell, San Francisco-based managing director at the CBRE Hotels consultancy.
"It's come a long way, but it still has some ways to go."
Other hotel projects suggest further momentum for the area, which puts guests within walking distance of Union Square and the Civic Center as well as San Francisco's revitalized Hayes Valley neighborhood. The Yotel capsule-hotel chainlet will make its San Francisco debut across the street from the Proper in the old Grant Building later this year, while properties under both the Standard and the new Eaton Workshop brands could be in the works nearby.
"The Proper is part of the revitalization of the Mid-Market corridor," said San Francisco-based hotel consultant Rick Swig, a principal with RSBA & Associates. "The area between Sixth Street and Van Ness Avenue on Market Street is reemerging as a business and arts district with new local theaters and galleries."
The smallest Proper Hotel of the four slated to open in the next two years, the San Francisco Proper is a worthy showcase for the brand because of its unique design and the building's century-plus history as a hotel, according to both Purnell, who called the hotel "gorgeous," and Lowe, who said its performance is exceeding expectations.
"If we had torn the building down and built it from scratch, it may have cost less," said De Lowe, who declined to reveal the property's redevelopment costs. "But we wouldn't have had such an iconic hotel."