Westfield is surrendering its shopping mall at 865 Market St, in downtown San Francisco, to its lenders due to a dramatic slump in footfall and sales caused by the pandemic.
According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, the company and its partner Brookfield Properties, have stopped making payments on a $558m loan and started the process of transferring control of the mall to its lender this month.
Last month, it was reported that department store operator Nordstrom, which occupies a 312,000 sq ft unit at the mall, intended to close its store in August when its lease expires. This would leave the mall – which has 1.2m sq ft of retail space and 300,000 sq ft of office space – 55% let.
In a statement, Westfield told the Chronicle: “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 centre to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward.”
The city has struggled to recover from the pandemic with office workers slow to return. This had led to a raft of closures of retail and food and beverage operators in the downtown area, as BE News reported late last year. Last month, it was announced the Old Navy store located next to the Westfield mall was due to close.
In May, Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, tweeted: “So many stores shuttered in downtown SF. Feels post-apocalyptic.”
