Upon returning home to Israel after his first trip to America, in 1978, Michael Shvo drew a picture of himself standing next to the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid, in San Francisco. Crayons, primary colors, stick figures: nothing out of the ordinary for a six-year-old. But, for Shvo, it was love at first sight. “For me this was the American Dream,” he said.
In 2020, thanks in part to the financial backing of Germany’s largest public pension fund, Shvo finally got the keys to the landmark tower for $650 million. The transaction was touted by civic and business leaders as a symbol of San Francisco’s resilience and a bellwether of a post-pandemic office-market rebound.
