Two years after a group of local investors, longtime patrons and stalwart bar veterans invested in the revival of one of San Francisco’s oldest pubs, the owners officially have the deed and say their bet is paying off thanks to a revival in the Financial District.
In late 2023, Tonic Nightlife co-founders Ben Bleiman and Duncan Ley, Tonic operations chief Lucia Camarda, and Chris and Jason Freise of Redco Development signed a lease agreement with an option to purchase the low-rise building at 245 Front St. from the Harrington family, who opened the bar in 1935 and ran it until its closure in 2020. The new owners have now finalized the deed transfer for what amounts to a $4 million property acquisition.
The owners say the business has never been busier after a stronger-than-expected summer boosted by stabilizing office attendance and large events utilizing the block's first-in-the-state "entertainment zone," which opened last year.
"This hasn't been an easy road," Camarda said. The "insane growth" in foot traffic in the past year, she said, has turned 2024's slowest calendar months into this year's busiest.
"It's just proof that when we create reasons for people to come downtown beyond work, whether it's a festival or block party or public art installation," she told the Business Times. "We see an immediate economic boost."
Harrington’s will have participated in at least 19 block parties of various sizes by the end of 2025, like the Bhangra & Beats night market, St. Patrick's Day celebration and monthly First Thursdays. Block parties such as Oktoberfest, hosted by Downtown SF Partnership, bring in the range of 10,000 people and can generate the equivalent of a full week of business. Another block party is on the way Thursday, Nov. 6, from the Urban Land Institute; a top city official and potentially State Sen. Scott Weiner, who authored the entertainment zone legislation, are expected to speak.
Corporate parties and private events have been another major source of revenue, and regulars have re-materialized and filled in from before the 2020 closure, the owners told the Business Times. New leases across a plethora of formerly vacant spaces in the vicinity have encouraged the owners about downtown's direction.
The venture wouldn’t have made it to last month's purchase had it not been for a group of roughly 150 friends and longtime patrons of Harringtons, including many local brokers, who —while not signatories on the debt-financed building deal — provided a crucial infusion of startup capital in the early going.
The activity rebound and nearby leasing of restaurants and office-catering businesses has given the bar owners greater confidence that vacant storefronts in the immediate vicinity can find new tenants in the near future, including the former McDonald's, Walgreens and Lee's Deli spaces. Improvements to the neighborhood block are under development from the DSFP, including string lights to enhance the nighttime glow and potentially help with slower weekend nights.
Bleiman said it's been an “absolute sea change in activity downtown” over the last two years. In 2023, he said, “we would tell people what we believed in (and) some would look at us like we’re crazy.” Now, and especially within the last year, Bleiman added. “People are realizing Harrington’s is fun."
Redco’s bet on Harrington’s adds to a prolific dealmaking streak while the market was at its lowest downtown. Chris Freise, named the Business Times Dealmaker of the Year in 2024, has clinched Redco deals for 300 California and 87,000-square-foot office building 400 Montgomery. Next door to that, the firm is fresh off its largest deal to date a little over a month ago: the 400,000-square-foot former Wells Fargo headquarters at 420 Montgomery St., bringing its San Francisco portfolio to nearly 700,000 square feet.