During Thursday’s Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco, San Francisco Mayor London Breed proposed replacing the rapidly derelict San Francisco Center mall entirely with something else, even going so far as to have it torn down for a new soccer stadium .
In recent years, the San Francisco Center shopping mall has experienced a rapid decline. While the mall was valued at $1.2 billion at 100% occupancy in 2016, the decade’s spike in crime, the COVID-19 pandemic, a dramatic drop in foot traffic, and other factors quickly led to that shops left the mall. Last month, a key anchor, Nordstrom, announced that it would exit the mall over the next few months, reducing overall capacity to 55%.
As bad news continued to pour in, the mall’s operator, Westfield, said earlier this month it would stop making payments for the property and ownership would pass to the bank. This prompted one of the mall’s largest tenants, Cinemark, to announce its abrupt closure last week, bringing its occupancy rate below 50%. Since then, other companies have signaled that they may soon exit the mall as well.
San Francisco is on the verge of another large building with low occupancy in the city, and many suggestions have been made in recent weeks about what to do with the property. Some want the mall to continue, while others propose office space, housing, and even converting part of it into a vast recreation area. But when Mayor Breed was asked Thursday what to do with the property, he didn’t opt for the usual conversion of office and residential buildings, instead proposing demolishing the mall and building a stadium there or creating a large laboratory space.
“We can no longer fully rely on downtown retail to limit what’s happening downtown,” Breed said. “You can transform certain spaces. A Westfield shopping center could become something completely different from what it is now. It could be a place where we could even demolish the whole building and build a whole new football stadium. We could create lab space or consider it a new company in a different capacity. Airbnb’s San Francisco headquarters is housed in a former jewelry market.
“Companies need to reinvest in the city community and think even more creatively about ways to use space. Instead of delving into another business’ stories, let’s look at what’s possible. There are many people who might not even shop there. Do I want to come back to the office every five days a week? Of course I would. But will that happen? Probably not. So let’s make some adjustments to do our best to re-imagine what parts of San Francisco can look like.”
The mall
Experts told the Globe on Friday that while a major transformation of the property was potentially feasible, it would have many ramifications for the city and would not guarantee people would use it.
“Closing a mall or converting part of a mall is never easy,” shopping mall planner and consultant Lydia Price-Davis told The Globe Friday. “If we keep the building, there are few conversion success stories. Some malls, particularly in the south, have been saved as large churches move into former anchor stores and the people who go there boost other businesses. But they don’t use all the space either. Keep in mind that department store floor plans are difficult to convert to anything else, especially when center escalators and odd angles are part of the structure. That’s why it’s so difficult to win back another anchor, and department stores aren’t exactly expanding right now. Wal-Mart, Menard’s, Dollar General—they can’t just move in there either.”
“On the demolition side, you have to make sure it’s used. Mayor Breed mentioned that there was a football stadium there. It’s not the worst idea, but you have to have tenants there first. MLS is out of the picture as San Francisco doesn’t have a team and the closest teams to San Jose are already playing in a new stadium. They could try a women’s league team, a minor league, or most likely college teams mixed in with high school and youth leagues, but that means families have to travel to the city to play games. Due to the lot size parking would be a nightmare.”
“Conversion is probably the best option. But even with that, obviously anyone who doesn’t know what to do with a property like this is worrying. San Francisco is emptying right now. You’re getting some tech back, with AI seeing a boost, but nothing big enough to refill those large retail and office spaces in the short term. It is very concerning.”
Further plans on what to do with the mall are expected to be announced soon.
