Related news: Juul sees interest evaporate from potential buyer of SoMa high-rise

https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/c/juul-sees-interes...

Juul bought the building in mid 2019 because SF landlords were increasingly hostile to it and often unwilling to rent to them. Their response was buy a building, right around their peak. Late last year, they took some big hits related to e-cig deaths (which I don't think they actually caused) and dropping their flavored offerings, massively hurting revenue.

Meanwhile, their new CEO (fall 2019), K.C. Crosthwaite, is an ex-tobacco exec, and some googling says he lives in Richmond, VA.

As others have said, part of this is probably lobbying, but part is that they're city hostile to them that the CEO doesn't live in.