A Brief History
In 1911, BOMA San Francisco was first formed, unofficially, as a partnership between building owners and managers in the City that were still rebuilding after the catastrophic earthquake and fire of 1906.
In 1914, with World War 1 beginning and the world changing, the partnership was made official and turned into a trade association to address the uncertainty of their business interests and the future they knew they would soon be facing.
Since then, BOMA San Francisco has resided at 4 different addresses, all in the heart of the city’s Financial District:
The Foxcroft Building (68 Post Street)
Market Kearny Street Building (690 Market Street)
Merchants Exchange Building (465 California Street)
Bank of the Orient Building (233 Sansome Street)
Over the years, in these different offices, staff have helped to produce or develop vacancy reports, newsletters, bulletins, labor contracts, membership meetings, seminars, webinars, and workshops just to name a few.
Plus, BOMA San Francisco has been involved in shaping and creating legislation on a state and local level since our founding. Our legislative committee dates back to the early 1920's and has been involved in addressing issues of taxation and earthquake guidelines and procedures for over 100 years.
In late 1986, it was decided that in order to be even more effective in the political and legislative arena, the establishment of a Political Action Committee was necessary.
On May 22, 1987 the BOMA-SF-PAC was born and in the years since, the committee has contributed to the defeat of tax increase proposals, supported candidates for Mayor, District Attorney, Sheriff, and the Board of Supervisors, and has supported or opposed various ballot initiatives.
Stronger Than Ever
Today, BOMA San Francisco is the most influential and effective advocacy, recruitment, and training organization for the commercial real estate industry in San Francisco, San Mateo, Marin, and Sonoma counties.
We represent more than 72 million square feet of office space and are also federated with BOMA International and BOMA California, associations that are the voices of the commercial real estate industry in Washington D.C. and Sacramento respectively.
We offer commercial property owners, managers, and the businesses that serve them an invaluable package of services to help them succeed in one of the nation’s most challenging and competitive markets by:
- Guiding members through San Francisco politics. Our staff and committees analyze and track local legislation, code changes, and new regulations that can affect commercial real estate business.
- Being the last line of defense against bad laws. Our Political Action Committee (BOMA-SF-PAC) campaigns for candidates and issues that promote economic vitality and the health of our industry.
- Partnering in recruitment, training, and communication. Our relationships, expert-taught seminars, and other programs and publications allow our members to hire and retain top talent, build rewarding careers, and stay in touch with the ideas, events, and trends that matter.
- Representing members at the bargaining table. Our savvy negotiators advise and represent our industry in contract talks with unionized building service workers, energy providers, and the trash collection and recycling industry.
- Being the source for good times through it all. Our Event, Careers, DEI, Emerging Professional, and Education committees, as well as BOMA staff, ideate, collaborate, and execute on dozens of fun and entertaining networking events throughout the year to provide members the opportunities to connect and tap into arguably our best resource – one another.