The building served as the headquarters for the Southern Pacific Railroad after its move from the Flood Building in 1917, ten years after SP had moved into the Flood Building in 1907. At its completion, the building's first floor was devoted to retail except for the portion facing the rear courtyard, which was reserved for Southern Pacific. SP rented the second floor to a tenant, but occupied floors three through ten with various offices. For many years, the building was topped with a large sign emblazoned with a gothic "S·P". It was later incorporated into the 1976 One Market Plaza development which includes Spear Tower and Steuart Tower. By 1995, Sam Zell owned One Market Plaza. However, Union Pacific Railroad was still the owner of One Market Street until the building was sold for to The Martin Group in 1998. TMG invested another $50 million to renovate the property, including a seismic retrofit, completing work in 1999. Equity Office Properties Trust sold One Market Street to The Blackstone Group in February 2007, and Blackstone, in turn, sold One Market to Morgan Stanley in June 2007 as part of a large real estate acquisition. Morgan Stanley sold approximately half of One Market Plaza to The Paramount Group in July 2007. One Market Plaza was owned jointly by Morgan Stanley and The Paramount Group until Morgan Stanley sold its share to Blackstone Real Estate Partners in 2014 for.
Design
When completed, One Market Street was hailed as the tallest steel-framed structure west of the Mississippi. The building is planned in the form of the capital letter "E", with the longest side, long, along Market Street. The wings on Spear and Steuart Streets are each long, and the central arm is occupied by elevators. It is designed in the Italian Renaissance style with details executed in Roman brick and terra cotta. The lobby was fitted with Colorado yule marble walls and an ornamental plaster ceiling. During the 1998–99 refurbishment, two of the eight original passenger elevators were eliminated and custom-sized modern elevator cabs were installed in the other six shafts, running on the original guide rails. The elevators had received a major redesign in 1956, when elevator operators were eliminated by automatic operation.
