Beacon Grand, A Union Square Hotel

The 1928 Sir Francis Drake Hotel, a Union Square fixture for generations, reopened on June 30, 2022 as Beacon Grand after Northview Hotel Group bought the property and dropped its Kimpton flag entirely. The renovation touched all 418 rooms and suites and the public spaces, including the 21st-floor Starlite bar, while keeping the building's Renaissance Revival lobby intact.

The place

The hotel stands one block above Union Square, at the corner of Powell and Sutter, on the cable car line that climbs toward Nob Hill. It is a five-minute walk from the square's flagship retail, the theater district, and the Powell Street cable car turnaround, putting guests within reach of both downtown business and the city's tourist core.

The concept

Built in 1928 as the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, the tower was for decades one of San Francisco's most recognizable addresses, its Beefeater-costumed doormen a fixture of Union Square. Connecticut-based Northview Hotel Group bought the property in 2021 and, rather than bring in another flag, spent roughly a year and a half stripping it back to an independent hotel under a new identity, Beacon Grand. The renovation, led by architecture and design studio KKAD, kept the Renaissance Revival bones — the lobby's original chandeliers, fireplace and marble floors — while re-covering all 418 guestrooms in European oak floors, railroad-tile showers and a navy-and-brass palette meant to read as updated rather than themed.

Dining & wellness

Dining centers on a Mediterranean-leaning restaurant built into the former Scalas space, with a menu built around California produce and a weekend spritz and live-music program. The Starlite Room, on the 21st floor and designed separately by Bill Rooney Studio, is a cocktail room with panoramic city views; The Library offers a smaller, quieter spirits-focused counterpoint at lobby level. There is no spa; wellness is limited to a 24-hour third-floor fitness studio, alongside roughly 17,000 square feet of event and meeting space.