As we first reported last year, Salesforce.com is planning to convert 13,000 square feet of its existing office and restaurant space at 50 Fremont Street and 8,900 square feet of the building’s publicly accessible open space into a childcare center with private outdoor play areas for up to 116 children of Salesforce employees.

The open space to be converted includes the entirety of 50 Fremont’s existing 7,500-square-foot pedestrian plaza, which fronts First Street as pictured and rendered above, and 1,400 square feet of 50 Fremont’s mid-block pedestrian mall which connects the plaza to Mission Street.

While the existing outdoor space to be converted is technically privately-owned public open space, the construction of 50 Fremont was approved prior to the implementation of San Francisco’s Downtown Plan in 1985 which created the requirement that developers specifically provide (Privately-Owned Public Open Space (POPOS) when building.

As such, 50 Fremont is not subject to the minimum requirements for the provision of POPOS as prescribed by San Francisco’s Planning Code and the City has just granted the proposed conversion an exemption from having to complete an environmental review. The five-month project is now two permits away from breaking ground. Two feet of excavation will be required.