Oakland’s only Gap store is about to sell its last pair of jeans after nearly 26 years on Lakeshore Avenue.
SFGATE spotted a “for lease or sale” sign on the storefront Sunday afternoon, with a QR code linking to a brochure from Dallas-headquartered real estate group CBRE, which is listing the 10,318-square-foot property.
Leasing agents declined to comment on the closure. On Tuesday morning, a spokesperson for Gap confirmed in an email to SFGATE that the store would shutter when its lease expires this summer and that the company was offering opportunities to employees to relocate to nearby stores. It was the only Gap left in Oakland after the store on Broadway closed in 2008.
The Gap store on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, Calif., is seen on May 10, 2026. (Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE)
“It’s very sad,” said Terri Ellis, the general manager of the Heath Company. Her late husband, George, developed the space where the Rubino Building once stood in 1999 for Gap, which moved in a year later.
The Gap store on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, Calif., is seen on May 10, 2026. (Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE)
She called the store “a staple on the Avenue.” The bustling block is also shared by Arizmendi Bakery, Good Vibrations, Unleashed by Petco and a Trader Joe’s; the Grand Lake Theatre is less than a five-minute walk away.
It’s not clear if a new tenant is in line to take the space, or if this is a sign of other Gap closures in the Bay Area. Gap also owns Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta. In April, the latter athleisure brand’s store in downtown San Luis Obispo announced it was closing after seven years, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported. Gap is expected to share the financial results of its first fiscal quarter of 2026 on May 28.
The news comes a week after Gap’s co-founder, Doris Fisher, died at her San Francisco home at the age of 94. She and her late husband Don opened the clothing retailer’s first store on Ocean Avenue in 1969 with a selection of denim and vinyl records before expanding to shopping malls throughout the U.S.
Several Gap stores remain in the Bay Area, with two on Chestnut Street and Marina Boulevard in San Francisco, where its corporate offices are also headquartered. Others are in Concord, Corte Madera, Napa, Novato, Petaluma, San Jose, Milpitas and Vacaville.
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This article originally published at Gap to close its only store in Oakland.