The New Arts, Journalism & Media HQs on Top of The Warfield
On a Thursday afternoon on Mid-Market, The Good Time Collective spins hip-hop under the Warfield Theatre’s marquee, while San Franciscans sway to beats and sip wine and beer on the sunlit streets. Unstaged is having its last street party of the year in San Francisco’s newest ‘Entertainment Zone’, while a new arts and media hub is opening its doors for the first time, in the heart of San Francisco.
Just above the legendary Warfield Theater, a news, arts, and culture hub has just opened its doors. Local musicians, DJs, and journalists are all hanging out on the Warfield Commons’ 7th floor patio, just inside a live radio show is streaming out of one of the new sound studios, and good music permeates the building, inside and out.
I chat with Guillermo Goyri, the President of Psyched Radio San Francisco, a DIY radio station, record label, and concert production non-profit. “A lot of us are volunteers, people who are a part of the local scene, who live right over there in the Tenderloin,” Guillermo tells me, “we’re excited about the future collaborations we can do in this space, shows, and concerts with KALW and the DIY community.”
Hailed as the Warfield Commons, its first tenants are KALW 91.7 FM, who have been playing public radio in SF for over 80 years (including NPR, BBC, music, and a lot more). KALW have dubbed their new digs on the 8th floor, “The People’s Studio”, and they’ve got plenty of programming and mixing coming up in the future.
Just below on the 7th floor, now lives Psyched Radio SF, which, if you’re into the San Francisco music scene, indie and underground, they produce live concerts (check out Psyched! Fest in October) and have dozens of great local DJs streaming music on the Psyched site and mobile App.
The new office spaces above the Warfield are raw but splashy, with views of the city and Mid Market, complete with a patio space that overlooks the roof of the Warfield Theatre. These floors were formerly occupied by the likes of Spotify and Match.com, and they went through a $9 million renovation. But in recent years, the tech tenants left, and the historic building established in 1922, lay vacant, until CAST (Community Arts Stabilization Trust) stepped up and purchased the space for $7.3 million, and set the stage for a new arts & cultural hub to complement the entertainment zone on Mid Market.
CAST specializes in finance and real estate, with experts you’d normally expect to work for hedge funds or large corporate conglomerates, but the folks at CAST, like CEO Ken Ikeda, specialize in buying buildings for the purpose of providing affordable long-term leases and permanent homes for cherished arts organizations in the Bay Area.
CAST is a big reason why CounterPulse has an awesome theater, why The Luggage Store Gallery lives on, and why 447 Minna Street is flourishing. CAST is also currently working with SF Port to create the City’s largest combined artist studio and exhibition space in the 122,000 square-foot Pier 29 on the northern waterfront. The anchor tenant there will be Art and Water — a new organization formed by Dave Eggers’ Hawkins Project, along with artist, educator, and SF Arts Commission member, J.D. Beltran. More tenants and collaborations are expected for the opening in early 2026.
“These are the buildings that nonprofits lose out on for lack of finances, ready tenants, or complicated partnerships,” said CAST CEO Ken Ikeda. “We’ve experienced first-hand rejection even with proof of funds because nonprofits are seen as unsustainable. This simply isn’t true. KALW is 83 years old and has never been stronger. Journalism, storytelling, and the arts have been identified as threats because they are so vital to establishing cultural narratives and understanding. We must continue to lift them up.”
CAST’s commitment to the neighborhood dates back to its founding in 2013, when it identified Mid-Market as an area of focus following the acute displacement of artists and arts groups after the Twitter tax break in 2011.
“Just over a year after launching Market Street Arts, we’re seeing a real transformation take shape,” said Steve Gibson, Executive Director of the Mid-Market Foundation. “This investment by CAST and KALW creates a new center of gravity for our cultural ecosystem, and with independent journalists and creatives activating the space daily, it reinforces what we’ve long known: that arts and culture are not just part of this neighborhood’s history, but the key to its future.”
The Warfield Commons really is ‘a one-of-a-kind home for artists, culture keepers, journalists & storytellers’. Below-market-rate rents are currently available in the building, and they are looking for Bay Area media and cultural institutions to inquire and collaborate.
The Warfield Commons
988 Market Street, San Francisco
Howdy! My name is Katy Atchison and I'm an Associate Editor for Broke-Ass Stuart.
I want to take the time to say thank you for supporting independent news media by reading BrokeAssstuart.com. Supporting independent news sources like Broke-Ass Stuart is vital to supporting our community because it amplifies the voices of a wide variety of diverse opinions. You also help support small businesses and local artists by sharing stories from Broke-Ass Stuart.
Because you're one of our supporters, I wanted to send over a pro-tip.
Our bi-weekly newsletter is a great way to get round ups of Broke-Ass Stuart stories, learn about new businesses in The Bay Area, find out about fun local events and be first in line for giveaways.
If you’d like to get our newsletter, signup right here, it takes 5 seconds.
