A pair of local developers, Presidio Bay and Prado Group, are the winning bidders to purchase the defunct former Westfield mall, and their redevelopment plans, which will hopefully be made public soon, include a mix of housing, office, and some retail.<\/p>\n
The long and painful saga of San Francisco’s dying and finally dead mall, the former SF Centre\/Westfield mall, is coming to a close, and its next chapter will include some of what the city needs most, new housing.<\/p>\n
As the Chronicle<\/a> and others are reporting, the partnership of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, who purchased the mall property out of receivership in November and foreclosed on a $560 million outstanding loan tied to it, have selected Presidio Bay and Prado Group to take over the property for an undisclosed sum. <\/p>\n The Chronicle reported that the estimated winning bid amount was around $130 million.<\/p>\n Real estate firm CBRE, which was marketing the property, has not commented on the sale, and nor have the winning bidders. The SF Standard was first<\/a> to the news of the sale, and had anonymous sources who said that the developers have plans for a mix of housing, office, and some retail space in the massive, 1.5 million-square-foot complex.<\/p>\n The mall, which occupies more than a city block starting at Fifth and Market and stretches back from Market Street to Mission Street, encompasses two main components \u2014 the original Nordstrom-anchored shopping center at Fifth, and the mid-block former Emporium building and a new structure attached to it that opened in 2006 as the Westfield SF Centre, with interior connections to the older mall.<\/p>\n Originally home to a 9-screen Century cinema on its top floor and a Bloomingdale’s, the mall’s overall occupancy slowly dwindled over the last three years after owners Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Properties handed the keys back to their lender in 2023. All but one of the tenants were evicted in January and early February, and the subsequent bidding process was unusually quick, according to real estate experts consulted by the Chronicle.<\/p>\n The tenant that remains in operation, and who continues challenging their eviction, is the bar Executive Order on the street-facing, Mission Street side of the building. Owner John Eric Sanchez posted a crowdfunding campaign<\/a> to cover legal expenses on Monday, saying in an Instagram post<\/a>, “I take pride in being a hands-on operator who honors commitments and believes in strong landlord partnerships. This chapter has been incredibly difficult, but my goal remains the same as it has always been: operate responsibly, create value, and build something sustainable for the long term.”<\/p>\n One major question about the future of the mall building will be how and to what extent the developers plan to preserve the soaring former Emporium rotunda<\/a>, which was painstakingly preserved and refurbished in the rebuild two decades ago. In that last reconsutrction, it was propped up on the building’s framing as virtually everything beneath it, apart from the Market Street facade, was gutted and replaced.<\/p>\n Prado Group had also been interested<\/a> in potentially redeveloping the nearby Macy’s property at Union Square, after that store’s announcement that it would eventually close its San Francisco flagship. Updates on the store’s fate are still to come, but Macy’s inked a deal to “explore the future potential” of the site with local developer TMG Partners in November<\/a>. TMG Partners CEO Michael Covarrubias said at the time that a future presence for Macy’s at the site was still on the table, as was a replacement store for Bloomingdale’s, which Macy’s owns. And housing was also a potential option. <\/p>\n The redevelopment of both the Macy’s and Westfield properties are now likely to happen concurrently.<\/p>\n Previously: BART Entrance Sealed Off at SF Centre as Official Closing Date for Mall Arrives This Week<\/a><\/p>\n