Now, 'time' for sale for relaxing on Nob hill

If you think you'd like a week-or-more citified vacation in a fun place every year -- pay attention. Time-sharing -- an ownership concept for vacationers which used to be the prerogative of real-estate people in Vail, Maui, or Fort Lauderdale -- is coming to US metropolitan cities. In fact, it has already arrived in San Francisco.

Two Bay Area Firms with properties in ideal San francisco locations are selling "week' use" apartments-to-own for a one- time figure of $10,000 and under. First-year assessments in each location runs slightly over $300; both organizations provide legal real estate, state-approved documents, including property deeds. For full payment, buyers get seven days' (or more) use of the property at a stipulated time each year.

One of these properties, Jackson Court, has up to now been a 10-unit posh bed-and- breakfast guest home. Built in the early 1900s, the sandy-red former mansion of the Callahan family has been renovated with new wiring (gas chandelier connections have long been capped and hidden), up-to-date sprinklers, and fashion-accented private bathrooms. And its once stately living rooms will become common lounge and meeting areas for the new time-sharer apartment owners or renters.

Powell Place, a 28-unit double Edwardian, one a half-hotel and still on Nob Hill across from the Fairmont, is another of the San Francisco properties to be offered for sale on the new plan. About 10 percent of its shares offered have been purchased, according to a company spokesman, mostly by out-of-city buyers. At Jackson Court, the purchasers' profile has had three distinct outlines: (a) those who live in the Bay Area -- typically Pacific Heights -- and need guest arrangements for visiting relatives and friends; (b) companies headquartering in or near San francisco which require more relaxing and spaciuos quarters for out-of -town executives; and (c) investors who may wish to rent out their time-shared interests.

Both organizations selling these urban properties on this newly set-up arrangement expect to release public reprots early in 198 1, as required by California's Department of Real Estate.