Exclusive: Is another wealthy, high profile tenant moving into this ritzy S.F. neighborhood?

A San Francisco neighborhood that has morphed into a magnet for investment from the ultra-wealthy just landed a new, high-profile tenant, according to real estate market participants tracking deals in the area. 

Multiple individuals have confirmed to the Chronicle that a near century-old, brick and timber office building in Jackson Square sold on Monday for roughly $9 million.

The buyer, according to these individuals, is Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm that invests in internet, software and tech-enabled companies. Thrive is based in New York and was founded in 2010 by Joshua Kushner, the son of real estate developer Charles Kushner and brother of Jared Kushner, who is former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser.

Thrive did not respond to multiple messages from the Chronicle seeking comment on the deal this week. 

Michael Gschwend, a senior vice president with brokerage Kidder Mathews, which was hired to list 451 Pacific, confirmed that the building sold when contacted by the Chronicle, but declined to disclose the identity of the buyer or provide further details.

Michael Birch, the building’s seller who, along with his wife, Xochi, also owns and operates the Battery — a private social club and high-end hotel located less than two blocks away at 717 Battery St. — neither confirmed nor denied the deal when contacted by the Chronicle. They purchased the building in 2020 for $12 million.

It is unclear whether Thrive already has office space in San Francisco — one individual said the company is working to lease a temporary office in the area until planned renovations at the 451 Pacific property are completed.

Another market participant said it would make sense for Thrive to set up shop in Jackson Square, where former Apple chief designer Jony Ive has been busy acquiring nearly half a dozen properties located on a single block, between Columbus Avenue, Pacific Avenue and Jackson Street. A report by the Information last month linked Thrive to Ive and the Emerson Collective, the philanthropic organization founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, who was married to Steve Jobs, Apple’s late co-founder. 

Powell Jobs recently invested in San Francisco real estate herself. In February, a new nonprofit backed by the philanthropist purchased the deserted campus of the San Francisco Art Institute for about $23 million, with plans to renovate it and restore it as an art institution. The campus is located about a mile north of Jackson Square. 

Last year, Ive reportedly joined forces with OpenAI founder Sam Altman to build an artificial intelligence device that has been dubbed the “iPhone of AI.” According to the Information’s reporting, Ive and Altman are seeking to raise $1 billion for the ambitious venture and have been in talks with the Emerson Collective and Thrive as potential investors. 

Altman, of OpenAI — which last year made a splash in San Francisco by leasing more than 400,000 square feet of office space in the Mission Bay neighborhood — is reportedly looking to use Ive’s design studio Lovefrom to develop the AI device. 

Ive has been driving up real estate values in Jackson Square, paying significantly above market value for a string of properties he’s assembling into what real estate market participants have described as a “compound” that will serve as the headquarters for Lovefrom. Ive co-founded the design firm in 2019 with fellow designer Marc Newson.

In February, Ive bought the Little Fox Theater property at 535 Pacific Ave. from real estate investor Clint Reilly, paying nearly $60 million for the 35,200-square-foot building. Reilly had acquired the property in the early 1990s for just $4 million. 

Ive also owns two adjacent buildings at 809 and 831 Montgomery Street, as well as a third nearby at 100 Columbus Ave. that is used as a parking lot. He paid a total of $35.5 million for the three properties.

Last year, a 10,000-square-foot office building in San Francisco’s Jackson Square neighborhood was acquired for $38 million by an unidentified buyer said to be linked to Ive.

In 2022 and 2023, Ive purchased two condo units at 845 Montgomery St. — a building that sits adjacent to his 831 Montgomery property — for $4.5 million.

Ive’s properties are located just half a block from the 451 Pacific building that is now said to be owned by Thrive.

Birch, 451 Pacific’s former owner, paid $12.8 million for the property, which spans roughly 7,000 square feet, in January 2020, just months before the coronavirus pandemic shuttered offices and many other businesses in San Francisco. 

An individual with insight into the 2020 deal said Birch had planned to move one of his startups into the building, or potentially use it as an extension of the Battery, but added those plans “never materialized.”  

Reach Laura Waxmann: laura.waxmann@sfchronicle.com