For more than a year, residents near 615 Front St. just north of Jackson Street have been watching—and listening—as the building has undergone extensive construction.

Good news: The building should be finished in a month or so, according to Paul Osmundsen, principal of Premier Structures, Inc., which has been doing the work on the structure. Say good-bye to portable potties, plywood on the sidewalks and incessant heavy machinery howls.

The new occupants—Walnut Street Properties, LLC—has spiffed it up quite a bit. "We actually did a lot of foundation work to make sure seismically it was up to snuff," Osmundsen said. "We did a fair bit of structural and foundation work. That was the majority of the work last summer and fall. New roof; new everything. It hadn’t been upgraded for about 25 years." He added, "There’s a courtyard in back so we’ve been doing structural work; masonry restoration," he said. "You can see how beautiful the front of the building looks now."

Though the building dates to 1900, according to property records, "it's not historically significant," Osmundsen said. "It's not a contributor to the historic district." The building is 9,993 square feet on a parcel that's 4,447 square feet, according to property records, and last sold for $2.5 million on March 30th, 2012. 

Walnut Street Properties is a three-year-old "nonresidential building operator" with a current address of 505 Sansome St., Suite 1950. One of the active members is California billionaire William E. Oberndorf. According to his Sourcewatch.org profile, he "funds conservative causes such as the privatization of education."

And now the bad news: You can't yet breathe a sigh of relief and take out those ear buds. First of all, SFPUC earlier this month began digging up the streets in the area to install new water mains. And recently, next door at 607 and 611 Front Sts., which house Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) and the Koret Foundation, the facade has been tented off and another noisy project that appears to be masonry restoration has begun. Giampolini & Co. is listed on the permit for the public to call for information, but a source there said no one could comment for this article.

607-611 Front St. Photo: Geri Koeppel/Hoodline

So when will the project finish and the Front Street block quiet down? An employee at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) referred questions to the Koret Foundation, but numerous messages left there on voicemail and in person over several days weren't returned.

The building, which dates from 1906 according to property records, used to house MacArthur Park restaurant. It closed in 2007 and was extensively renovated before Koret occupied it starting around early 2014.