The Financial District is a
neighborhood
A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...
in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, California, United States, that serves as its main
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...
and had 372,829 jobs according to U.S. census tracts as of 2012–2016. It is home to the city's largest concentration of corporate headquarters, law firms, insurance companies, real estate firms, savings and loan banks, and other financial institutions. Multiple
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
companies headquartered in San Francisco have their offices in the Financial District, including
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...
,
Salesforce
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...
, and
Gap.
Since the 1980s, restrictions on high-rise construction have shifted new development to the adjacent
South of Market (SoMa) area surrounding the
Transbay Transit Center. This area is sometimes called the South Financial District by real estate developers, or simply included as part of the Financial District itself.
The 2020s have seen high office vacancy rates in the Financial District since the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, attributed to the accelerating exodus out of the downtown core, particularly by retail and tech companies.
The area is marked by a cluster of high-rise towers in the triangular area east of
Kearny Street, south of Washington Street, west of the
Embarcadero that rings the
waterfront, and north of
Market Street. The district includes the
Transamerica Pyramid, formerly San Francisco's tallest building.
Montgomery Street (sometimes called "
Wall Street of the West") is considered the traditional heart of the district.
History
Under
Spanish and
Mexican rule, the area had been the site of a harbor named
Yerba Buena Cove
Yerba Buena Cove was a cove on San Francisco Bay where the Mexican town of Yerba Buena, California, Yerba Buena was located. It lay between Clarks Point (San Francisco), Clarks Point to the north (southeast of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, Teleg ...
with a small civilian outpost named
Yerba Buena that served to support the military population of the
Presidio and the
Mission Dolores. The sandy, marshy soils of the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula discouraged the Spanish, and later Mexican governments from establishing a preeminent town there, who focused their
pueblo
Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
settlement efforts in the
Pueblo of San José with its extremely fertile land. It was not until 1835 that the first settlers established themselves on the shore of Yerba Buena Cove, with the first town plan surveyed in 1839.
Yerba Buena's potential as a seaport made it the eventual center for European and American settlement.
After gold was discovered in the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...
Foothills in 1848, Yerba Buena's location on the natural harbor of San Francisco Bay acted as a magnet for European and American settlers, as well as gold and job seekers from a multitude of countries. Following
Californian independence and American annexation and the
California Gold Rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
, the area boomed rapidly and the Bay shoreline, which originally ended near Montgomery Street, was filled in and extended to The Embarcadero. Gold Rush wealth and business made it the financial capital of the west coast as many banks and businesses set up in the neighborhood. The west coast's first and only
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
s, were built in the area along
Market Street.
The neighborhood was nearly completely destroyed in the
1906 Earthquake and Fire, as the area's skyscrapers survived. By 1910, the area was largely rebuilt with low-rise, masonry-clad buildings ranging from six to twelve stories in height.
During the late 1920s, several
Neo-Gothic high rises, reaching 300 to 400 feet in height, were constructed, including the
Standard Oil Building,
Russ Building,
Hunter-Dulin Building,
Shell Building, and the
Pacific Telephone Building.

With the onset of the
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
and statewide height restrictions due to earthquake fears, few new buildings were constructed, and the district remained relatively low-rise until the late 1950s. Due to new building and earthquake
retrofitting technologies, the height restrictions were lifted, fueling a skyscraper building boom.
This boom accelerated under mayor
Dianne Feinstein during the 1980s, something her critics labeled "
Manhattanization
''Manhattanization'' is a neologism coined to describe the construction of many tall or densely situated buildings, which transforms the appearance and character of a city to what is similar to Manhattan, the most densely populated borough of New ...
". This caused widespread opposition citywide leading to the "skyscraper revolt" similar to the "
freeway revolt" in the city years earlier. The skyscraper revolt led to the city imposing extremely strict, European-style height restrictions on building construction citywide.
Due to these
height restrictions, lack of buildable lots, and changes in the local real estate market, new development in the area has shifted to
South of Market Street since the 1980s. The area south of Market, east of
Third Street, north of
Folsom Street, and west of the Embarcadero is sometimes called the South Financial District, or simply included as part of the Financial District itself.
To encourage new development south of Market, and to help fund the replacement for the
Transbay Terminal, many height limits were raised in the area. As a result, nearly all new high rise construction since the 1980s (and for the foreseeable future) has taken place South of Market.
According to TRI Commercial, the traditional Financial District provides approximately of office space, and the South Financial District offers about .
In the 2020s, the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
stimulated an exodus of business from the downtown core of San Francisco.
By 2024, the average sale price of office towers in the Financial District had fallen to around $310 per square foot from $800 before the pandemic. Successive owners of office buildings and hotels defaulted on their loans, raising concerns about the effect on San Francisco's tax revenues and the financial stability of local government services.
Location

Adjacent to the Financial District to the west is the
Union Square shopping district. To the northwest is
Chinatown
Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...
, and to the north is
North Beach and
Jackson Square. To the east lies the
Embarcadero waterfront and the
Ferry Building. To the south lies
Market Street and the
South of Market district.
The Financial District is served by more than two dozen
Muni bus and rail lines, including one
cable car line, as well as
Montgomery Street Station and
Embarcadero Station in the
BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves List of Bay Area Rapid Transit stations, 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running t ...
system.
The nickname "FiDi" is occasionally employed,
analogous to nearby
SoMa. The area is commonly referred to as "Downtown" as well, although "Downtown" may include the broader Union Square, Chinatown,
Tenderloin, and SoMa districts as well.
Characteristics

The District is home to numerous corporate headquarters, including half of San Francisco's eight
Fortune 500
The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
companies—
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...
,
Salesforce
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...
,
Visa, and
Gap—
as well as
Levi Strauss,
Kimpton Hotels,
Dodge & Cox,
Prologis,
Docusign,
Yelp, and
SoFi
SoFi Technologies, Inc. (abbreviated as SoFi) is an American personal finance and financial technology company. Founded in 2011 at Stanford University, it operates as a direct bank and provides its technology platform to other financial institu ...
among others; and formerly
Bank of America
The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...
,
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation () is an American engineering, procurement, construction, and project management company founded in San Francisco, California in 1898, and headquartered in Reston, Virginia in the Washington metropolitan area. , the '' E ...
,
Pacific Bell,
Crocker Bank,
Transamerica,
Chevron,
PG&E,
McKesson,
URS
Urs (from ''‘Urs'') or Urus (literal meaning wedding), is the death anniversary of a Sufi saint, usually held at the saint's dargah (shrine or tomb). In most Sufi orders such as Naqshbandiyyah, Suhrawardiyya, Chishtiyya, Qadiriyya, etc. ...
, and
Charles Schwab among others. The headquarters of the 12th district of the United States
Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a series of ...
is located in the area as well. Prior to their disestablishment,
AirTouch
AirTouch Communications, Inc. was an American Mobile phone, wireless telephone service provider, created as a Corporate spin-off, spin-off of Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were located in the One California building in the F ...
,
South Pacific Air Lines,
Pegasus Aviation Finance Company, and the
Pacific Exchange all had their headquarters in the Financial District.
There are several shopping malls in the area, including the Crocker Galleria, the
Embarcadero Center, the
Ferry Building Marketplace, and the
Rincon Center complex. Parks and plazas located there include
Sue Bierman Park;
Justin Herman Plaza, and Transamerica Redwood Park. St. Mary's Square and
Portsmouth Square are near the borders of the district, but are usually considered as part of Chinatown.
Diplomatic missions
Several consulates are located in the financial district. Countries with consulates in the Financial District include
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
,
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
,
Guatemala
Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
,
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
,
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
,
the Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
,
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
, and
the United Kingdom. The
Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and the
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office is located in the Financial District.
[Contact Us]
." '' Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Los Angeles''. Retrieved on January 31, 2009.
See also
*
49-Mile Scenic Drive
*
History of the west coast of North America
*
List of tallest buildings in San Francisco
San Francisco, California, in the United States, has at least 482 high-rises, 58 of which are at least tall. The tallest building is Salesforce Tower, which rises and is the List of tallest buildings in the United States, 17th-tallest buildin ...
*
List of companies based in San Francisco
*
555 California Street
References
External links
*
Downtown San Francisco Community Benefit District*
{{Authority control
Neighborhoods in San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
Economy of San Francisco
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...