A very small number of shops has scraped by to survive the death spiral of the mall known as the San Francisco Centre. But now the mall's new owners are reportedly kicking out those couple-few remaining stores, too.
There was finally some resolution last week on the fate of downtown SF’s former Westfield Mall. which has hardly any tenants left, and has a vacancy rate of as high as 95%. But someone actually bought the mall last week at a fire-sale price, with the buyers being a consortium of banks like Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. And we all wondered if the new owners would keep that property operating as a shopping mall, or turn it into something else.
At this point, we would bet on “turn it into something else.” That’s because a new report in the San Francisco Business Times says that the new owners are trying to terminate the leases of their few remaining tenants at the San Francisco Centre mall. And in fairness to the new owners, it does appear that the terms of the sale did indeed void the tenants’ current leases.
The Business Times obtained the eviction letter sent to multiple remaining mall tenants (though we don’t know if all stores received the letter). The letter demands that the retailers "immediately vacate and surrender the premises," and says that their lease was "extinguished" by the sale of the mall to new owners. The letter adds that the new owners "will not permit any holdover," and of course, demanded immediate payment of any rent that is currently due.
"The company is still trying to figure out how to get us out of here," an anonymous employee of one of the evicted stores told the Business Times. "But 'immediately' is not possible."
Another store manager at the mall’s shoe store Ecco did go on the record.
"I know there was a memo that was sent to all these tenants about our last day being January 31," that manager said to the publication. "Right now, we're in liquidation mode."
And the mall’s surviving Samsonite luggage store was already planning on going out of business anyway. The mall’s current online directory lists 27 current tenants, which is down from more than 200 pre-pandemic.
The Business Times cannot say for sure how many stores in the mall received the eviction notice. And a separate report on the matter from the Chronicle notes that "an employee at Sole & Laces said their lease remains intact through next year." So maybe some stores are not being evicted, or maybe those stores’ employees just don’t know about it yet.
But it’s no secret that the bank consortium that bought the San Francisco Centre mall just wants to sell the place again, and hopefully flip it for a profit. The Business Times notes that “some brokers have said a full-on clean-out wouldn't surprise them.” After all, it might be easier to sell the property if the place is completely empty.
Image: Nargiz K via Yelp
