Historic One Montgomery lobby opens for Super Bowl-week activations hosted by Empire

A restored 1908 Italian‑Renaissance revival banking hall at One Montgomery opened its doors to the public for Super Bowl‑week activations hosted by local label Empire, bringing live music, brand activations, and a museum‑style display into the heart of the Financial District.

The lobby opening on Feb. 5, 2026 turned a long‑vacant landmark into a weekend hub of performances and corporate pop‑ups. Empire used the split first floor to stage a joint Levi’s and Jordan Brand activation alongside a 15‑year retrospective that included platinum record displays for Kendrick Lamar, a branded bottle of orange wine released by Larry June, and custom Empire bicycles. A Thursday evening set by LaRussell, accompanied by a marching band, was among the weekend’s live events.

Empire, formally referred to in reporting as Empire Distribution, Records and Publishing Inc., acquired One Montgomery last year and plans to make the building its global headquarters. The label’s founder Ghazi Shami, who started Empire in his Potrero Hill home in 2010 and expanded into distribution and music software, was on site for the opening. “It’s amazing, bro. It’s mind‑blowing,” Ghazi said, adding, “I only imagined that things like this could happen. So to see all these people in here, not only because it’s a beautiful building, but here for what we’re actually doing, which is music culture. It’s pretty gratifying.”

Empire’s purchase price remains reported inconsistently across outlets: SFist reported a January 2025 purchase for $22.5 million, while other coverage put the figure at roughly $24.5 million and some described the sale as “over $20 million.” The city’s records will be the definitive source for the exact closing figure.

Plans announced by Empire call for about 150 local employees to relocate to One Montgomery and for roughly $40 million in renovations. FunCheap summarized interior plans that move offices to the basement and second floor, convert one of the grand banking halls into a full‑service restaurant, and reserve the other banking hall and rooftop largely for private use while hosting public programming. Empire also hopes to convert the ornate rooftop into a concert venue; the rooftop had public access under previous ownership before 2019.

City approvals included a Planning Commission vote reported to have passed 5–1 after debate over public access and security. As part of the approval, Empire pledged to host four free large‑scale public concerts each year, each expected to draw at least 10,000 people, and to stage frequent free public events inside the building. Mayor Daniel Lurie described the rooftop proposal as “exactly the kind of forward thinking that will take our city to new heights,” signaling civic support for cultural reuse of office space downtown.

For San Francisco residents, the One Montgomery activation is both symbolic and practical: it represents private investment repurposing an architecturally significant vacancy and promises recurring public programming downtown. Empire’s roster and partnerships — from Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak to recent hitmakers like Shaboozey — underline the label’s national reach, while the building’s promised free concerts and in‑house events could draw visitors back to the Financial District.

Next steps include work on permits and renovation timelines, confirmation of the purchase price in public records, and the city’s follow‑through on noise, safety, and access conditions for rooftop events. For now, One Montgomery’s lobby has converted an empty vault into a public stage and a new node in San Francisco’s cultural map.