Westfield San Francisco Centre will be given up to its lender as the mall’s owner pulls out from the Downtown San Francisco property that’s been hit by a string of economic shocks.
Most recently, the mall was rocked by the announcement in May that Nordstrom would not renew its lease, leaving a huge hole across five floors of the mall. The mall’s occupancy rate currently sits at 55% with the string of recent closures.
“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 said in a statement.
A number of nearby stores have also announced their closure, including Old Navy’s flagship location on Market Street and Nordstrom Rack, which sits across from the mall on Fifth Street. Just around the corner, on Fourth Street, the Metreon shopping and entertainment complex is bringing in art pop-ups to fill a number of its many vacant storefronts.
Control of the mall will be transferred to Westfield’s lender, and a receiver will be appointed to operate the property going forward.
As Lillian Philippe was having lunch in the Westfield mall food court on Monday, she told The Standard she was concerned about the end of the company’s lease at the shopping center.
“It’s distressing to hear that, with so many stores closing,” said Philippe, who is visiting family in San Francisco from her home in New York City.
Despite the mall’s fate being uncertain, Philippe is hopeful it will survive.
“I think it’ll be alright because there’s nowhere to go but up,” Philippe said. “This place is somewhere to get away from what’s happening on the streets.”
Westfield cited declines in sales from $455 million in 2019 to $298 million in December 2022, with visits decreasing from 9.7 million to 5.6 millio
