Brookfield has reached an agreement with the city government on a major project that will involve the construction of 3,500 residential units in the 40-acre Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco.

As part of the deal, the mall's owner will make 20 percent of the housing units – about 700 apartments – affordable. The new housing units will also include a senior village and a senior center, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The deal still needs to be approved by the City of San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which recently reduced the amount of affordable housing that developers must include in their projects from 23.5 percent to 12 to 16 percent, depending on the size of the project.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the area that includes Stonestown, said the 20 percent commitment for affordable housing in the project is the best thing the city can do in the current economic environment.

“I would have liked to ask for more, but given the circumstances — and given that it's more than they have to do — it's good,” Melgar told the Chronicle. “It's also great considering that nothing has been built on the west side in a very long time.”

The New York arm of the Toronto-based real estate giant first proposed a $2 billion redevelopment of the massive parking lot surrounding the 750,000-square-foot mall more than two years ago. The original plans, which called for preserving the 70-year-old mall, also included a hotel, but that was scrapped when housing was increased in the project.

The development will include a town square with outdoor dining, recreational areas and a plaza with a farmers market. Brookfield plans to create a new “Main Street” with shops, restaurants and a 14,000-square-foot corridor of entertainment along 20th Avenue.

The project will include six hectares of parking and a daycare center, the report said. Parking spaces would be built underground and next to shops.

Brookfield will contribute $1 million to improve playgrounds in the area and donate $2.7 million to Fire Station No. 19, which will serve the new neighborhood. The developer will also pay more than $50 million in development fees to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, the report said.

The Stonestown Galleria is thriving in stark contrast to downtown San Francisco's largest shopping center, formerly known as the Westfield Center.

Last year, Brookfield Properties and Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stopped payments on a $558 million loan linked to the Westfield Centre and handed the keys to the half-empty mall to their lenders.

The name of the downtown mall, currently in receivership, has been changed to Emporium Centre San Francisco, a reference to the Emporium, a department store that opened there in 1896.

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By Jack Rogers

April 26, 2024 at 5:54 am

Brookfield enters into contract with city for 3,500 units at Stonestown Galleria.

Brookfield has reached an agreement with the city government on a megaproject to build 3,500 residential units at the 40-acre Stonestown Galleria in San Francisco.

Under the agreement, the mall owner will make 20% of the units — about 700 apartments — affordable. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the new housing will include a retirement village and a senior center.

The deal still needs to be approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which recently reduced the amount of affordable housing that developers must include in their projects from 23.5% to 12% to 16%, depending on the size of the project.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar, who represents the area including Stonestown, said the project's 20 percent affordable housing commitment is the best the city can do in the current economic environment.

“I would have liked to have done more, but given the circumstances — and the fact that it's more than what's asked of them — it's good,” Melgar told the Chronicle. “Plus, it’s great considering there hasn’t been any construction on the west side in a long time.”

The New York arm of the Toronto-based real estate giant first proposed a $2 billion redevelopment of the vast parking area surrounding the 775K SF shopping center more than two years ago. The original plans, which called for preserving the 70-year-old shopping center, also included a hotel, but this was abandoned as the number of apartments in the project increased.

The facility will include a town square with outdoor dining areas, recreational areas and a plaza that will host a farmers market. Brookfield plans to create a new “Main Street” with 150,000 square feet of retailers, restaurants and an entertainment corridor along 20th Avenue.

The project will include six acres of parks and a daycare center, the report said. Parking spaces will be built underground and next to the retailers.

Brookfield will contribute $1 million toward playground improvements in the area and make a $2.7 million donation toward Fire Station No. 19, which will serve the new neighborhood. The developer will also pay more than $50 million in development impact fees to the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency, the report said.

The Stonestown Galleria is thriving in stark contrast to downtown San Francisco's largest mall, formerly known as the Westfield Center.

Last year, Brookfield Properties and Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield stopped payments on a $558 million loan tied to Westfield Center and turned over the keys to the half-empty mall to their lenders.

The name of the downtown mall, now in receivership, was changed to “Emporium Center San Francisco,” a reference to the Emporium department store that opened there in 1896.

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• KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building as the city’s ‘doom loop’ continues to batter its downtown region
• It comes as shoe store Alto also prepares to exit San Francisco Centre, the city’s biggest mall, next week
• Nearly 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent, according to a recent report 

Accounting firm KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building, another high-profile exit from San Francisco’s beleaguered downtown.

The consulting and accounting giant first leased space in the 25-story office tower when the building opened in 2002.  Its name hangs above the entry to the skyscraper where the company currently occupies more than 100,000 square feet. 

It comes as shoe store Alto prepares to exit San Francisco Centre, the city’s biggest mall, next week.

Businesses and residents have fled downtown San Francisco since the pandemic with groups blaming crime, homelessness and work-from-home keeping people from downtown. 

Nearly 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent, according to a recent report. 

KPMG is set to move out of its $400 million namesake building after two decades in downtown San Francisco Nordstrom have recently moved out of the city’s downtown contributing to a loss of footfall

KMPG, a large accounting and financial firm, originally took 90,000 square feet at 55 Second St. in a 10-year contract, marking the second-largest office deal of 2003.

It has since grown its footprint to span nearly one-third of the 380,000-square-foot building, leading to it being widely known as ‘The KPMG Building’.

The company is now considering ending its two-decade-long relationship with the building, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It’s the latest tenant looking to exit the downtown area. 

Now, another business is set to leave the area’s largest shopping center as Aldo moves its store from the San Francisco Centre. The mall lost Adidas last Saturday, as well as other recent losses including Hollister, Lego and J. Crew. 

The mall lost $910 million between 2016 and 2023, with half the rental space now empty, according to an appraisal published last month.

Its owners lost control of the 5-million-square-foot retail and office complex to lenders last year. 

The high-profile closures and exits suggest San Francisco’s ‘doom loop’ is far from over. A doom loop is where a city loses its tax base and can’t afford improvements needed to fix the situation to bring new businesses and residents back to an area. 

The city’s downtown has suffered from the proliferation of homeless encampments, open-air drugs markets and rampant theft. 

Hordes of brand names, including the likes of Whole Food and Nordstrom, that have recently moved out contributing to a loss of footfall that then drives out other businesses.

The city has also struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses. 

Nearly 100 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent, according to a recent report The city’s downtown has suffered from the proliferation of homeless encampments, open-air drugs markets and rampant theft The city has also struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a vicious circle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.

High theft has proved a problem in the area recently, with a Walgreens in the city center resolving to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters.

Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month.

Anthropologie and Office Depot have also made the same decisions.

These stores joined the growing list of stores that have abandoned the coastal city, including H&M, Marshall’s, Gap and Banana Republic.

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.

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 post KPMG transferring out of $400million ‘KMPG constructing’ in downtown San Francisco with close by besieged mall loses one other tenant as doom loop continues to see residents and companies flee liberal-led metropolis appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The parent company of the formerly Australian shopping center brand Westfield announced a year ago that it wanted to divest itself of its US mall properties. And following the Nordstrom closure announcement, they are walking away from their Market Street mall in SF and surrendering it to the lender.

The Chronicle reported Monday that the Westfield Corporation and its partner, Brookfield Properties, have stopped making payments on a $558 million loan and are in the process of transferring ownership to an eventual receiver. While this could be a negotiating tactic with the lender — which one expert surmised could be the case with a similar public announcement by the owner of the Union Square Hilton and Parc 55 hotels — Westfield has already in recent years walked away from several of its US properties, including four malls in Florida.

And in April 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that Westfield parent company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield had near-term plans to back out of the US market altogether and focus solely on the EU. Chief Executive Jean-Marie Tritant told investors at the time that the plan was to sell off most of its US real estate by the end of 2023.

But, much like Nordstrom, the Hilton owner, and Whole Foods in recent months, the company points to downtown San Francisco’s specific problems and not the retail climate overall.

In a statement Monday, the company said, “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. 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.”

The Chronicle notes that, according to Westfield, gross sales at the Market Street mall were down by a third in 2022 as compared to 2019. And after the departure of Nordstrom, the property will be just 55% leased — compared to the average for its malls, which is 93%.

The other anchor tenant in the mall, Bloomingdale’s, is reportedly tied in to a long-term lease that doesn’t expire until 2046. But, as the SF Business Times reported, two large tenants, the Century Cinema and H&M, both have leases expiring in the next six months.

Westfield opened the grand, fully rebuilt mall in 2006 along with then partner Forest City, and it was then called the largest mall on the West Coast — connecting the pre-existing, Nordstrom-anchored shopping center, open since 1989, to the historic Emporium building next door. The renovation project, which included the preservation of the Emporium’s grand glass dome on the fourth floor, began in 2003.

While the mall is in no immediate danger of closing, it has certainly seen better days in terms of foot traffic — and even on relatively busy weekends, many stores are far from crowded.

As SFist noted several weeks ago, this follows a larger, national trend in which large-scale retail in major cities is suffering generally, with more shoppers moving online or patronizing suburban shopping centers over urban downtowns. A new research paper from the JP Morgan Chase Institute found that Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Seattle, Miami, and Chicago all lost more retail stores than they gained between 2017 and 2021, as did San Francisco. And the pandemic was only one of multiple factors in that trend.

Related: Nordstrom to Shutter Downtown SF Department Store, and Nordstrom Rack, This Summer

Photo via Facebook

The post EU-Based mostly Westfield Says It Is Strolling Away From San Francisco Mall Property, as It Has A number of of Its US Malls appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

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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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.

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The landscape of downtown San Francisco’s once thriving has been struggling for some time with declining sales, declining foot traffic and a series of closures that have hit the city hard. In what may seem odd to many, Mayor London Breed has proposed a new idea to revitalize the neighborhood: replacing Westfield Mall with a football stadium, a concept that emerged in the wake of Westfield’s announcement that it would be giving up its iconic San Francisco mall due to these challenges.

According to a recent SF Gate article, Mayor Breed has suggested that Westfield Mall, a once-prominent downtown landmark, could potentially be converted into an entirely new football stadium. The suggestion was made during a stage interview at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco, where the mayor discussed the deteriorating state of commercial real estate in the city and the urgent need for creative solutions to revitalize the area.

As SF Gate reported, Breed started listing things that could be, saying, “You can transform certain spaces… A Westfield mall could, you know, become something completely different than what it is currently.” could be a place where we could even demolish the whole building and build a whole new football stadium.”

As Bloomberg reported, Mayor Breed called on investors to rehabilitate the ailing downtown core by converting or even demolishing vacant buildings to make room for new growth. “I think we need to re-imagine what downtown can be like,” Breed said, emphasizing the importance of looking for new opportunities rather than dealing with the decline of traditional retail outlets. Critics and pundits alike have warned that such a move could potentially give struggling downtown San Francisco a much-needed boost, inject new energy and rekindle the city’s reputation as an innovative leader.

While downtown San Francisco is grappling with the effects of a decline in tourism, remote work crowding out office tenants, and security concerns, it’s interesting to note that the Valley Fair mall in Westfield, just 50 miles away in Silicon Valley, has plenty has experienced more positive development with record high sales and steady growth, as we also reported here on Hoodline. Successful tenants like Nordstrom have chosen to stay in Valley Fair while ditching the San Francisco property, suggesting it’s not just the demise of the retail sector that has brought it to its knees. Instead, it indicates that the San Francisco mall has failed to adapt and meet the challenges of today’s retail landscape.

This contrast between the two Westfield malls underscores the importance of innovative thinking and bold moves in the face of a changing environment, as demonstrated by Valley Fair’s successful adaptations. Transforming downtown San Francisco and potentially replacing Westfield Mall with a soccer stadium could create new opportunities for the city, its businesses, and its residents that would allow it to emerge from these trying times with renewed vigor and optimism.

However, it’s critical that San Francisco leaders focus their efforts not just on bold clean-ups, whether in stadiums or elsewhere, but also on pressing issues like homelessness and public safety. To this end, Mayor London Breed has in the past proposed various measures to address these issues such as: B. Accelerating the construction of new housing units, passing legislation allowing easier access to mental health treatment, and relentlessly striving to improve the quality of life of the city’s residents, as noted in a New York Times article.

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Westfield San Francisco Center in 2022 in San Francisco. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Westfield San Francisco Center mall owners are giving up the land to lenders, adding to real estate woes in a city struggling to bring workers and tourists back in the wake of the pandemic.

The mall, jointly owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Corp., has $558 million in outstanding mortgage debt. Management is delegated to a bankruptcy trustee.

The move comes a month after Nordstrom Inc. announced it was closing its store at the site, citing a drop in customer traffic and the city’s changing dynamics. The mall is located in the heart of San Francisco’s Union Square neighborhood, one of downtown’s premier shopping and tourist districts.

“Given the difficult operating conditions in downtown San Francisco that have resulted in declines in revenue, occupancy and footfall, we have made the difficult decision to initiate the process of transferring management of the mall to our lender so they can appoint one” The trustee will operate the property going forward,” Molly Morse, a spokeswoman for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said in the statement.

San Francisco has been among the hardest-hit cities since the pandemic as office vacancies soar, retail vacancies rise and security concerns deter visitors. Last week, Park Hotels & Resorts Inc. announced it was halting payments on loans to two downtown hotels with $725 million in outstanding debt.

Revenue at the Westfield San Francisco Center fell to $298 million last year from $455 million in 2019, while foot traffic fell 43%, Morse said. Traffic and sales at other Westfield properties increased during the same period.

The San Francisco Chronicle first reported on Westfield’s decision to default on his debts.

In a statement, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the move “will take some time,” citing Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s plans to exit the US market entirely. The Paris-based company planned to “radically reduce our financial exposure to the US over the course of 2022 and 2023,” said CEO Jean-Marie Tritant.

“With new leadership, we have the opportunity to pursue a new vision for this space that focuses on the future of downtown San Francisco,” said Breed. “Whether it’s attracting new types of businesses or educational institutions, or creating a completely different experience, we need to be open to what’s possible.”

The post San Francisco mall proprietor defaults as actual property woes rise appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Anyone heartened by news that both an 87,000-square-foot Ikea store and food hall are set to open in San Francisco’s mid-market area should probably lower their expectations, as the San Francisco Business Times reports that the project is delayed again. When the store last reported the schedule for the Livat mall and food hall on Market Street, it looked like at least key tenant Ikea would open by spring, but the mega furniture retailer says the schedule has been pushed back became .

Although no new opening date was given, an Ikea spokesman for the store said they “remain committed to opening” and are “pushing forward vigorously with construction”. Other tenants are rumored to be considering leasing the new mall, including coworking company Industrious and an adult mini-golf course owned by pro golfer Rory McIlroy. Last year, developers said they expect the mall to open in late 2023.

Whether you find this news encouraging or not, it comes against a backdrop of troubles in downtown San Francisco, as several major retailers announce they are pulling out of their flagship locations. Stores like Nordstrom, Anthropologie, H&M, Gap and others have all announced plans to leave downtown in recent months, creating a “doom loop” over San Francisco’s business and shopping districts. It’s a storyline Mayor London Breed is fighting against, and on Tuesday, May 16, she announced a $6 million plan to redevelop three blocks of Powell Street around the cable car turnaround and Union Square at.

Oakland Popeyes is closing after allegations of violence and labor violations

Complaints with Cal/OSHA and the California Labor Commissioner’s office led to the sudden closure of a Popeyes at 7007 International Boulevard in Oakland, as the fast-food chain announced it would investigate allegations of child labor violations and violence at the restaurant. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the complaints describe an unsafe work environment where employees were assaulted by customers and undertrained security guards pepper-sprayed both offending customers and employees.

The two 17-year-old employees who filed the complaints say they worked longer hours than the law allowed, while being forced to forgo breaks and being subjected to sexual harassment at work. Meanwhile, another employee as young as 13 was allegedly allowed to work six days a week at that location, including on school days until midnight, in another violation of the state’s labor laws. “We will not condone any violation of labor laws and if any of these allegations are proven true,” Popeyes said in a statement to the newspaper, “we will take action against that franchisee.”

Indulge in a sweet sugar rush with a tasting menu that focuses on desserts

Those with a sweet tooth will be thrilled to hear that pop-up Bellaria Dessert Studio is opening a cafe with a five-course dessert tasting menu as well as a la carte sweets, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Pastry chef and owner Luis Villavelazquez is helming the show and told the paper he wants to create “a new, dynamic and evolving dessert culture in San Francisco.” The new store at 442 Hyde Street will open in the second week of June.

Favorite place for vegan desserts that stays closed on Sunday

Also in the dessert news is that the Berkeley location of Cinnaholic, the chain known for its vegan cinnamon rolls, is closing permanently on Sunday, May 21. With the store’s lease ending this month, owner Nicole Nuss wrote in an Instagram post, “It’s about time I moved on,” having run the business since 2014.

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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

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