The Macy's corporation hasn't shared much in the way of plans since its bombshell announcement earlier this year that it would close its flasghip San Francisco store. But there are a couple of possibilities emerging for the property.

Macy's delivered a blow back in February to the city's efforts to revitalize its beleaguered Union Square, announcing a likely closure in 2025 and a general plan to sell the 400,000-square-foot property along with around 150 other "underperforming" stores around the country.

Mayor London Breed, whose problem this will no longer be in a couple short months, tried to cast doubt on the certainty of Macy's plans, but many retail experts have noted that enormous, downtown department stores aren't exactly thriving anywhere.

Now, as the Chronicle reports, we have word that the brokerage and investment bank hired to handle the marketing and sale of the Macy's property, Eastdil Secured, has heard from several interested buyers of the multi-building complex, at least two of whom are local developers.

One is the Prado Group, which has an ongoing, large-scale residential development at UCSF's former Laurel Heights campus in the works, as well as another on the former California Pacific Medical Center campus at 3700 California Street. The two projects together comprise 1,320 residential units.

The other confirmed interested developer is TMG Partners, which owns PG&E's new Lake Merritt headquarters in Oakland — which it stands to make a 100% profit on when a sale to PG&E goes through next year. (TMG bought the building from Kaiser in 2020 for $450 million, and PG&E looks to be paying around $900 million for it.) TMG also owns a building at 600 Battery that it renovated into Class-A office space and leased to Ripple Labs in 2022.

A new use for the Macy's property would likely include some retail, however it could end up being primarily converted into other uses, which could include offices, a hotel, and/or residential units. According to planning, the property is in a highly flexible zone that could include any number of commercial, arts, or residential uses. But building up much higher than what's already there would incur a shadow study, and would likely cast significant shadows on Union Square Park.

Neither developer has made their intentions known, and both say they are in early talks for the property, per the Chronicle.

The city continues to express hope that Macy's, after selling the property, might still want to keep a store footprint there — or, perhaps, relocate its Bloomingdale's store from the SF Centre mall two blocks away, with Bloomingdale's reportedly being a stronger business these days.

As Sarah Dennis Phillips, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, told the Chronicle earlier, the city's "second best option" for the property "would be to ensure that some other type of significant retail presence is maintained at Macy’s Union Square flagship store, prior to and continuing through any redevelopment or change in ownership, including food and beverage uses along with substantial anchor retail."

Being the anchor store of the neighborhood at large, the impending departure of Macy's has no doubt made it harder for other property owners to lease out other vacant spaces, including a row of stores on Powell Street. Spaces like the Gap's former flagship at Powell and Market, and the enormous former H&M location on Powell have now sat vacant since the early pandemic or before, and retailers may be skittish about the neighborhood without an anchor like Macy's.

Reports of crimes like smash-and-grab burglaries, and the late August shooting of 49er Ricky Pearsall, have not helped the area's image.

Stay tuned, likely after the holidays, to hear what comes next for the Macy's property.

Previously: Can Daniel Lurie Save Macy's?