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.
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In the wake of Nordstrom’s announcement that it would close its store in the Westfield mall, the co-owner Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield said the planned closure “underscores the deteriorating situation in Downtown San Francisco.” Businesses are leaving Downtown due to unsafe conditions, the company said.
Law enforcement dispatch data shows police regularly patrolled the mall. Officers logged almost 560 “passing calls”—when officers patrol an area to demonstrate a police presence—at the mall from May 1, 2022, to May 1, 2023.
San Francisco’s emergency dispatchers also received reports of hundreds of potential crimes during the same time period. The data shows reports of 118 petty theft incidents, 64 fights, 41 grand thefts and 24 burglaries.