By Harriet Alexander For Dailymail.com

23:56 14 Jun 2023, updated 12:53 15 Jun 2023

The cinema inside San Francisco’s Westfield mall is to close this week – days after Westfield said that it too was moving out, dealing another blow to the struggling downtown.

Cinemark will show its last films on Thursday and close for good Friday.

Cinemark told The San Francisco Standard they had decided to close before the conclusion of its lease term, due to a ‘comprehensive review of local business conditions.’ 

The cinema chain becomes the 24th major store to close in Union Square area since the start of the pandemic, the paper reported.

Earlier this week, Westfield announced they had defaulted on the $558million loan for the building and is handing it back to the lender, which will appoint a receiver. The mall will remain open for now.

The decision was sparked by the decision from Nordstrom, the mall’s anchor tenant, to close in August.

Westfield blamed ‘unsafe conditions’ and ‘lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity’ in large part for Nordstrom’s departure.

The Cinemark cinema, Century Theatre, in downtown San Francisco will close Friday Westfield in San Francisco (pictured) has announced that it is handing the building back to the lender A woman in a wheelchair injects drugs at San Francisco’s infamous open-air drugs market. The taxpayer funded ‘harm reduction’ facility opened and shuttered close to Westfield in early 2022, after criticism that it had done nothing to sort out the city’s many social ills

Westfield said the ‘unprecedented’ poor performance in San Francisco was a sharp contrast to the rest of its properties.

San Francisco Centre generated $455 million in sales in 2019, before the pandemic.

Last year, sales were down about a third to $298 million.

Nordstrom occupied 312,000 square feet in the mall: when it closes, Westfield San Francisco will only be 55 percent leased.

Other Westfields are, on average, 93 percent leased.

The mall is a smart and upmarket building, whose other retailers include Bloomingdales, Aesop, Rolex and Sephora.

Westfield’s struggles will pile fresh pressure on city leaders, after multiple retailers and hotels shuttered in downtown San Francisco as it continues to battle soaring crime, open drug use and homelessness.

The famously progressive city has been condemned for its ‘harm reduction’ policies, which critics say have effectively legalized drug taking. Meanwhile, its police department remains short-staffed after woke lawmakers called for defunding in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.  

‘For more than 20 years, Westfield has proudly and successfully operated San Francisco Centre, investing significantly over that time in the vitality of the property,’ the company said.

‘Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward.’

Westfield’s San Francisco mall includes 1.2 million square feet of retail space and 300,000 square feet of offices.

It is in the troubled Union Square area in the center of downtown, where homelessness and crime are rife.

Camps are set up around the city and people take drugs openly. Pictured: Homeless tents are seen in Tenderloin District during heavy rain in San Francisco on January 11 Several of the stores which have closed cited safety concerns as the downtown area of San Francisco is ravaged by homelessness and drug taking Retailer Old Navy has become the latest retailer to vacate crime-ridden San Francisco (File photo from 2020) Nordstrom recently shuttered a store in San Francisco, citing changing ‘dynamics’ in the city as the reason for the closures Employees at a Target store in San Francisco recently said it was being robbed as frequently as every ten minutes

Whole Foods, Old Navy, Gap and Office Depot are just some of the stores in the district to announce in recent months that they are closing.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating – a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

The city is in something of a vicious cycle: office workers are now working from home, leaving the downtown area significantly quieter, and making the empty streets more dangerous. The rise in crime then deters people from entering downtown.

And as the downtown empties, the city loses essential tax revenues, and the area becomes less appealing.

The revenue loss to the city caused by decreased property taxes could reach $196 million per year by 2028, according to modeling published in November by the San Francisco Controller’s Office. 

The best-case scenario from the modeling expects the cost will be nearer to $100 million per year.

The building that houses The San Francisco Chronicle, a block from Westfield mall, faces a 60 percent vacancy rate by the fall as tenants Yahoo and Autodesk’s leases expire.

An analysis of official figures and other research reveals San Francisco may lose hundreds of millions of dollars through an exodus of businesses and its failure to recover from COVID Signs posted to cars near the linkage site announce ‘nothing to steal’ as crime continues to rise in one of the city’s poorest and most drug-infested neighborhood Tourism is steadily recovering to its pre-covid highs, according to figures from the San Francisco Travel Association

Next door, the 415 Natoma office tower is 97 percent vacant.

San Francisco foot traffic totaled 5.6 million visits between January and December 2022 – a 42 percent drop.

In 2019, the figure was 9.7 million visits.

The city has been affected by a state-wide shoplifting law that downgraded stealing goods worth less than $950 from a felony to a far less serious misdemeanor crime. 

A disturbing recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent.

In April, Whole Foods said it would shut its flagship store in downtown San Francisco ‘for the time being’ to ensure staff ‘safety.’

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has proposed a record budget despite the city facing a $1.3 billion deficit by 2028

‘If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening of our Trinity location,’ a spokesperson said.

Similarly, a Target store in the city has been forced to lock up more of its products to stave off thieves.

An employee at the location recently said it was being robbed as often as ‘every ten minutes.’

Many major tech companies based in San Francisco – including Meta, Google, Salesforce and Twitter – have also axed tens of thousands of jobs in recent months as the industry suffered a post-covid downturn.

In April, Salesforce said it will leave its eponymous 30-story Salesforce East building in downtown, where around 1,000 staff had worked before the pandemic.

City officials launched a $6 million ad campaign in May to lure back tourists. Visitor numbers have improved since covid and in 2022 were around 16 percent lower than the record-breaking 26.2 million in 2019.

The international campaign included a commercial featuring an array of local talent, including Lady Camden, a drag queen who became popular on ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race,’ and local muralist Sirron Norris.

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May 18, 2022

“Sister Act 2” will screen at Dolores Park on May 27 as part of the SF Parks Alliance Sundown Cinema series.

Touchstone Pictures/ABC

Summer is nearly upon us, and with it comes the return of one of San Francisco’s most pleasant seasonal traditions: Sundown Cinema.

Presented by the SF Parks Alliance and Do the Bay, the movie series will screen eight films in different parks starting May 27 and running through Oct. 21. Each event is free, however, those who support the Parks Alliance through a membership will be entitled to reserved seating, a valuable commodity as these screenings will likely be quite crowded.

The series kicks off next Friday at Dolores Park with a sing-along showing of a San Francisco classic, “Sister Act 2,” which filmed at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Noe Valley. The local ties continue on June 17 with ’90s action classic “The Rock,” screened in the Presidio, just a short swim away from Alcatraz. Spock and Captain Kirk return to SF — the center of the Star Trek universe — in “Star Trek IV” at Union Square on July 8. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” whose titular hero likely won’t be welcome on Muni anytime soon, plays Sept. 30 at Crane Cove Park.

Additionally, “Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark” will play Alamo Square on Sept. 9, and there will also be a few requisite family-friendly offerings (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II,” “Encanto” and “Addams Family Values”).

See the full schedule and reserve members-only seating at the SF Parks Alliance website.

Dan Gentile is the culture editor at SFGATE. He moved to San Francisco from Austin, TX where he worked as a vinyl DJ and freelance writer covering food and music. His writing has been featured in Texas Monthly, American Way, Rolling Stone, Roads & Kingdoms, VICE, Thrillist and more. Email: Dan.Gentile@sfgate.com.

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fFor years, underground San Francisco drag performer and cinephile Peaches Christ has been filling the city’s renowned Castro Theater with her Midnight Mass series, juxtaposing cult film screenings with live drag parody re-enactments and stage interviews. These loving but irreverent late-night events are an integral part of LGBTQ+ culture at the city’s preeminent art-house theater, itself one of the most visible landmarks in San Francisco’s most famous gay district.

As Peaches Christ puts it, “Cinema was my religion and the Castro is our Vatican.”

And now, a month after hosting the US premiere of The Matrix Resurrections and a few months before its 100th birthday, the owners of the opulent 1,400-seat movie palace have announced that it will soon become primarily a live entertainment venue and will no longer screen many films at all.

Wednesday’s news sent shockwaves through the city’s artist and film communities and revealed a partnership between Castro and Another Planet Entertainment (APE), a Bay Area concert promoter. Known for preserving other historic venues – and for producing Outside Lands, a three-day music festival usually held in Golden Gate Park every August – APE announced that it is planning a major renovation of the interior and the famous marquee, as well as a dramatic transformation in the kind of events that the Castro will host.

“We want to present all types of programs in the theater – comedy, music, film, community and private events and more,” the organizer said in a press release.

Cast members stand at the premiere of The Matrix Resurrections on December 18th. Photo: Noah Berger/AP

The news stunned local filmmakers and festival programmers, who urged APE to seek input from the community – so much so that the promoter rushed to placate the reeling city, saying nothing unexpected would happen overnight.

Century-old movie theaters and single-screen theaters have been disappearing from San Francisco for years, victims of rising operating costs and the popularity of streaming services well before the pandemic hit. But as a cultural institution, the Castro Theater is unique. It is home to numerous festivals and premieres and matinee screenings of Camp Hollywood classics such as Gray Gardens and Auntie Mame. A destination for American film buffs, where you might watch a painstakingly restored 1940s noir, witness director Peter Bogdanovich belittle Cher during a Q&A session, or just sing along to Grease.

Already dark for 15 months during Covid, the Castro reopened in June 2021 to host the 45th edition of Frameline, San Francisco’s long-standing LGBTQ+ film festival.

Continuing a longstanding tradition of prefixing every film with live music from the in-house organ – no longer a “Mighty Wurlitzer,” but arguably the world’s largest pipe-digital hybrid organ – the return of the theater embodied the dawn of last summer’s optimism in California briefly eased its pandemic restrictions on indoor gatherings. It’s also very, very gay: San Francisco, the Judy Garland-revived theme from the 1936 disaster film of the same name, is always the last song before the curtain goes up. Consequently, the theater’s large and vocal queer fanbase was particularly saddened at the prospect of losing it forever.

“We know there won’t be the same amount of screenings at this venue and of course we’re very saddened by that,” said James Woolley, Executive Director of Frameline.

However, he did confirm that the 46th iteration of the festival, an anchor of San Francisco’s Pride Month celebrations, is still ongoing in June.

Peaches on stage at the Castro. Photo: Courtesy of Peaches Christ

Although Peaches Christ was initially dismayed, a call to APE put her mind at ease.

“They assured me that the programming would be very well thought out. They’re not going to program it like they would Bill Graham, or remove the seats,” she said, referring to a much larger venue that welcomes EDM DJs and mainstream musicians.

While concerned that the Castro might devote itself entirely to live performances, Peaches noted that comedy festivals like Sketchfest had long since broadened the scope of what the theater was doing. Second screenings were hardly his bread and butter.

“As much as I would hate to see the repertory calendar disappear when you went to the screenings, nine times out of ten it was less than half full,” she said. “I ran a cinema and have been in the business for a long time. I knew it wasn’t a sustainable model.”

Peaches is optimistic about APE as a local entity that’s much smaller than national companies like LiveNation. They promised her they would honor her existing contract and also assured her that they would install a new cinema screen, improve accessibility for people with disabilities, and make other necessary repairs.

“What the general public doesn’t see is that the Castro needs a huge electrical upgrade,” she said. “The old wiring sometimes caused circuit breakers to trip. It was stressful.”

Still, the underlying economics are what they are, which is why many San Francisco theaters are now derelict (or repurposed as gyms).

“Theater business is tough, and I think it’s especially tough for independent historic single-screen arthouses. You can only charge so much for a movie ticket,” said Lex Sloan, filmmaker and executive director of the 110-year-old single-screen Roxie Theater, the oldest such venue in San Francisco. “We are more than just cinemas. We are places where people make memories and make new friends. Places like the Castro and its programming are the quintessence of what makes San Francisco weird and wild.”

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