It seems odd that there are businesses that still want to stay open in a dead mall, but one of them has frontage on Mission Street, and the other two are apparently trying to stick it out for some reason.

With the former Westfield Centre mall, which became the San Francisco Centre briefly, now auctioned out of receivership late last year, and with most of the mall totally emptied of stores and food stalls, it's only a matter of time before the whole place gets padlocked and goes completely dark for some indefinite period of time. But there are apparently three holdout businesses, and the SF Business Times reports this week that the mortgage trust that now owns the 1.5 million-square-foot retail complex has filed unlawful detainer suits against three businesses, following notices of eviction that were issued in November.

We don't know which businesses these are or what the play is here, except for one, which is the seven-year-old bar and lounge that faces Mission Street called Executive Order, near the former Bloomingdale's back entrance, in the space that was once occupied by 'wichcraft when this mall opened. Owner John Eric Sanchez told the Chronicle in late November that he was hoping to "hold out as long as we can," but with $35,000 to pay in rent every month, it's not clear whether the place has even been breaking even.

Also, a shoe store called Sole & Laces told the Chronicle in November that they believed their lease was good through all of 2026, so perhaps they are trying to stick around as well.

As we previously noted, the ownership trust known as DBJPM 2016-SFC Emporium, informed all tenants that any leases they signed had been "extinguished," and they were ordered to vacate "immediately." Some stores, like the Ecco shoe store, already told the Business Times that they were in the process of shutting the store down, but it would take more than a few weeks — and they apparently gave employees a January 31 closure date.

The unlawful detainer filings are a first step in a formal eviction process, and perhaps only the stores that have not responded to the previous notices are the ones being targeted.

The strategy on the part of the ownership trust appears to be to bring expenses down until such time as the place can be flipped and resold — with nothing open, there won't be any need to pay for big utility bills, janitorial, or hired security, and the place can just sit dark for a while.

What comes next for the building is anyone's guess.  But the mixed-use complex — which was designed to have a 250,000-square foot office component that was occupied by San Francisco State University for its downtown campus — could be reconfigured into any number of things.

We'd just like to note here, ahead of the mall's final-final death knell, that it was only 16 years ago that this mall won international accolades as one of the world's prettiest and best-designed shopping centers, and it was hailed as "a 21st-century engine of commerce, community and culture." Oh how swiftly they can fall.

Previously: SF’s Beleaguered Former Westfield Mall Now Actively Kicking Out Its Few Remaining Tenants

Photo by Amy Dugiere