A local architect has filed a Preliminary Project Assessment (PPA) for a 22-story hotel at 439 Washington St. between Battery and Sansome streets. The address is currently the site of a two-story building holding attorney's offices, Italian restaurant Il Massimo, and Stript Wax Bar.

The architect, Michael Stanton of Stanton Architecture in SoMa, filed the PPA plans and application, which also lists Peninsular Realty LLC and emails for Paradigm Hotels Group, a privately held hotel and commercial real estate company in San Francisco.

The current building is 38 feet tall, and the proposed hotel would rise to 200 feet. According to the proposal, it would be demolished for a building that would contain 101,000 square feet of space: 3,500 square feet of retail, 90,000 square feet of hotel space (with 189 rooms) and 7,500 square feet of building support. There would be no parking. The estimated construction cost is $35 million.

Rendering: Stanton Architecture and Peninsular Realty

If built, the hotel would block views of the Transamerica Pyramid for many of the north-facing west-facing and some south-facing residents of nearby Gateway Apartments. The Gateway's Vista South tower on Davis Court has 25 floors, and the Vista West tower, even closer on Battery between Jackson and Washington streets, has 22 floors.

View of Transamerica Pyramid from Vista South, looking toward Vista West.

Stanton recently filed another PPA to build a boutique hotel at 224 Townsend St. That project would incorporate the Art Deco facade of the building that's now on the site, as opposed to demolishing it. The PPA says that the 439 Washington St. building, dating from 1907, "has been extensively altered," which is why it's not being considered for preservation.

Paradigm's other local properties include the Holiday Inn San Francisco International Airport, Four Points by Sheraton Hotel & Suites San Francisco Airport and Best Western Premier—Ivy Hotel Napa. It lists three other Bay Area hotels in development, but not at this location.

Stanton Architecture has designed several other hotels in the area, including the popular Hotel Zetta, It's also behind several SoMa restaurants, including The Cavalier (360 Jessie St.), Dirty Habit (12 Fourth St.) and Marlowe (500 Brannan St.)

We called Il Massimo to ask if the restaurant would be displaced, but an owner or manager wasn't available for comment this morning. We also reached out to Stanton and to Paradigm for comment, but didn't hear back by deadline. According to the San Francisco Business Times, the San Francisco hotel market is a hot one, with 85 percent occupancy; investors believe it to be the best in the country.

The PPA was submitted on November 23rd; the planner assigned is Rick Cooper, (415) 575-9027.