Westfield San Francisco Centre closes 2 days early

San Francisco’s beleaguered Westfield San Francisco Center mall has closed its doors earlier than expected.

The largest mall in the city, which witnessed A chain of retailers It departed in recent months, closing on Saturday, two days ahead of schedule, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

A sign reading “Closed until further notice” was placed at the front entrance of the once-busy shopping center, the outlet reported.

An employee at the mall’s last remaining tenant, shoe store Ecco, told the outlet that the store and mall have permanently closed earlier than expected.

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Tenants, including anchor stores, have been packing up and leaving the mall in recent years with a slew of brands leaving in the past few months.

In early December, Shake Shack confirmed it would close its store inside the mall with new owners taking over.

A Nov. 25 filing with state labor officials revealed that the fast food chain will permanently close its location inside the Westfield San Francisco Center on market Street on Dec. 14, a move that will affect 26 employees.

The San Francisco mall, which has been plagued by high vacancy and a series of departures by major retailers, has been sold to a new owner who requires all tenants to vacate the building, Shake Shack told FOX Business.

The remaining tenants were also issued notices from the property management’s legal counsel, informing them that their leases had been “extinguished” due to the recent ownership change, and that they needed to vacate immediately, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

Signs are placed on the exterior of Westfield San Francisco Center on April 13, 2022, in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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The new owner of the mall is a limited liability company known as DBJPM 2016-SFC Emporium. The Real Deal reported that the new owners took control after a foreclosure auction on Nov. 12 that transferred the property away from its previous operators, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Properties. the The previous owners defaulted on loan and effectively withdrawn from the site in 2023.

Between 2020 and 2023, the mall lost 46% of its stores, the San Francisco Standard reported. This includes its flagship store, Nordstrom, which announced in 2023 that it would close its two downtown San Francisco locations, including its flagship store inside Westfield San Francisco Center.

Shoppers inside Westfield San Francisco shopping center in San Francisco, California, on June 13, 2023. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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The mall’s other major tenant, Bloomingdale’s, left in early 2025. Mall tenants are key to a mall’s success since they are traffic engines. When businesses close store, it undermines the viability of remaining retailers because traffic declines sharply.

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