M. Larry Lawrence, a developer from San Diego, California, purchased the site of the China Basin Landing building in 1982. The site had a six story existing structure, the China Basin Building, dating back to the 1920s or earlier. Lawrence spent $40 million to renovate the older building and build a new three story, office facility next to the existing structure. The new office building, which opened in 1991, was the final major office building in San Francisco to open during that year. As an office facility, a portion originally it had three stories, while another portion had six stories. The entire facility had a total of of space. At one point the building was converted from warehouses to offices. A parking garage was established so the building owners could get a variance that permitted them to convert the building to offices. In 1998, Blackstone Group owned the building. The California Public Employees' Retirement System bought China Basin Landing in 2005 for $260 million. Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum San Francisco designed a two-story expansion on top of the existing 1991 section of the China Basin Landing facility. In 2011, Dropbox announced that it would take the fourth floor with an option for the fifth, and the center became 91% leased. McCarthy Cook & Co currently own and manage the property.
Most of the facilities within China Basin Landing are offices. The complex has a parking garage which, as of 1999, has 600 spaces.
Tenants
Academic facilities
The China Basin Location of the University of California San Francisco Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics is located in the building The UCSF Imaging Center at China Basin, of the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, is located in the building.
Offices
has its corporate headquarters in building. Dignity Health and Synopsys, among many other tenants, are in the building.. Lyft also has its corporate headquarters in the building.
Former tenants
When Sirna Therapeutics was located at China Basin Landing, it occupied Suite 6504. Previously the Public Library of Science was located in Suite 3100. In June 2010, PLoS announced that it was moving to a new location. The SF Weekly previously occupied space in Suite 3800 The newspaper is now in a different location. KESTAM 1450, a radio station, as of 1998 had offices at China Basin landing. The radio station is now located in another facility. Department of Rehabilitation had an office in the past.