San Francisco's largest mall, the San Francisco Centre, is now 93% empty, according to recent figures from a Morningstar appraisal. Once a bustling retail hub, the property has seen its value plummet to $195 million, a sharp decline from its valuation of over $1 billion in 2016. This staggering drop reflects a wider trend challenging brick-and-mortar businesses, exacerbated by e-commerce growth and the pandemic's lingering impacts, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
With high rents and increased retail crime plaguing the city, San Francisco's in-store shopping experience is facing a serious slump. Efforts to inject new life into downtown have seen mixed results. At the same time, nearby Stonestown Galleria mall seems to have bucked the trend, and San Francisco Centre continues its downward spiral, at one point described by Gazetteer SF as a "dead mall walking," as per Newsweek.
The closure of Nordstrom, one of the mall's key tenants, further underscores the challenging market dynamics downtown, as the fashion giant's exit was because "the dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market" had "changed dramatically over the past several years," according to a memo obtained by CNN, as cited by Newsweek. This exit has impacted customer foot traffic and cast doubt on the future of brick-and-mortar operations in the area. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle confirms that the mall's management is currently negotiating potential lease violations with its lessor, the San Francisco Unified School District, adding a layer of complexity to an already troubled property.
