In one of the most surprising developments in San Francisco’s post-pandemic retail apocalypse, Nordstrom now says it will close its massive, 312,000-square-foot department store at Westfield San Francisco Center, which has been open since 1988. The company also says it will be closing its 45,000-square-foot outlet store Nordstrom Rack, which is less than a block away on Market Street. The Seattle-based company says Nordstrom Rack will close on July 1 and the Westfield Mall store will close about a month later.
The leases at both locations are about to expire. Options to extend the leases were available, but Nordstrom apparently turned them down because there simply aren’t enough buyers, thanks to a shift in shopping behavior since the pandemic and concerns about petty crime. “Decisions like this are never easy, and this one was particularly difficult, but as many of you know, the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, affecting the flow of customers into our stores and on affecting our ability to operate successfully,” said the company’s Chief Stores Officer, Jamie Nordstrom, in a statement to affected workers obtained by the SF Business Times.
A Westfield spokesman said the closure shows the City of San Francisco’s inaction on the rising number of shoplifting and other blatant crimes along Market Street. “We have called on the city to find solutions to key issues and a lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity. The current environment is not sustainable for the community or businesses and we hope the city will implement the changes that are so much needed. ‘ the Westfield spokesman told the SF Business Times.
The future of the Westfield San Francisco Center is also uncertain. Its owner, who is also Europe’s largest mall operator, says it wants to exit the US and will sell most of the American malls it operates by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported in April.
Nordstrom will shift its focus to its other 16 stores in the Bay Area. News of the closure comes just days after news that Sak’s Off Fifth, which is located next to the Nordstrom Rack on Market Street, will also close. SFist reported on Monday that Ross Dress For Less will be taking over the Sak’s space. Ross already has a massive location a block away at Market and 4th, and it’s unclear if it’ll be moving its current store or adding a different location altogether.
Sak’s Off 5th on Market Street. | Photo credit: Google Maps
