The former Barneys building at 48 Stockton — vacant since the retailer's 2020 bankruptcy — filed two alterations permits worth about $4.2 million in eight days, amid a lower-Stockton corridor lighting up with buildout money.

The six-story building at 48 Stockton Street, at the foot of the block where Stockton meets Market and the Union Square retail spine begins, has been dark for five years. It went up in 1909, carried Barneys New York from 2006 until the retailer's bankruptcy closed the store in February 2020, and then it sat — renovated, releasable, empty. This summer the paperwork started moving.

City building records show two over-the-counter alterations permits at the address inside of eight days: one estimated at $2.2 million in late July, and a second dated August 7 at $2 million, described as a third-floor buildout for multi-tenant office space. Roughly $4.2 million in filings, on a building that has spent half a decade waiting for a reason.

There are reasons circling. In November 2025, the San Francisco Standard reported that Maybaum Gallery had signed a lease for about 20,000 square feet in the building — "We're going to throw large-scale events in this space, for artists, art lovers, and collectors to gather," owner Christina Maybaum said. By April 2026, The Real Deal and SFist reported that billionaire investor Michael Moritz was pursuing office space in the same building for his Crankstart foundation. The permits don't name a tenant, and I won't assign one to them; what they mark is construction money finally reaching the third floor.

The block around it is doing the same thing. Up the street, 100 Stockton — the former Macy's Men's Store, reopened after a $250 million redevelopment — carries a $14.15 million alterations permit dated July 29. At 120 Stockton, the old Macy's building mid-conversion, two more permits landed in late July, at $750,000 and $1.25 million. This is a corridor where Union Square office vacancy sat at 26.3 percent last November, filing its way back toward occupancy one buildout at a time.

Walk past 48 Stockton tomorrow and the marquee is still bare. Behind it, on the third floor, someone is about to start building.