Free Republic

San Francisco's beloved mall will finally shut its doors after years of harrowing decline and fears of crime and homelessness. San Francisco Centre, formerly known as the Westfield Mall, will permanently close on January 26, an employee for the disgraced shopping center's lone remaining store told the San Francisco Chronicle. The iconic mall began spiraling downward with the rest of the Democrat run city after the COVID-19 pandemic. Rumors of the closure have circulated for months as sprawling homeless encampments deterred tourists and locals alike. As downtown foot traffic decreased, the mall saw fewer and fewer customers. Its flagship Nordstrom...

The San Francisco Center, once a thriving mall home to the largest Nordstrom in America, is a shell of its former self after a string of high-profile departures.. Staff and shoppers in the mall, where five more stores closed in January .. crime and falling foot traffic is ruining the palatial building.. The mall lost $1 billion in value last year ... The mall's cavernous, marble-floored atrium is eerily quiet. There's not a single shopper in sight and a litany of abandoned stores lay mostly empty, but for a few leftover cardboard boxes or fading signs which serve as a...

San Francisco-based companies leaving The Golden City because of drop in revenue ... San Francisco, California-based tech CEO Mark Benioff says the city will never go back to the way it was ... ... Golden City is struggling to keep businesses intact, leaving many buildings vacant.. office vacancy rates in San Francisco were 24.8% in the first quarter, more than five times higher than pre-pandemic levels and well above the average rate of 18.5% for the nation’s top cities, ... For San Francisco, the three-year exile resulted in empty storefronts with large "going out of business" signs hanging from windows....

San Francisco's struggling downtown has been dealt another blow with the news that Westfield is abandoning its massive mall - the biggest in the city - amid a plunge in sales sparked by the pandemic. Westfield has stopped making payments on a $558 million loan, and is handing it back to their lender, who will appoint a receiver. It will remain open for now. The decision is sparked in large part by the decision from Nordstrom, the mall's anchor tenant, to close in August. Last month, Westfield blamed 'unsafe conditions' and 'lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity' in part...

Around 46 percent of stores in downtown San Francisco's Westfield mall have closed since 2020, as owners announced plans to close the shopping center amid spiking crime and rampant homelessness. A total of 45 out of the 97 retailers operating in the mall - and 16 of the 36 food vendors - shuttered in just over three years, according to an analysis by the San Francisco Standard. Days ago, Westfield announced it would be closing the mall altogether, and weeks after its anchor tenant Nordstrom potentially hammered the nail in its coffin by announcing its own closure in August. Other...

Nordstrom has announced it is closing all of its San Francisco stores, blaming the 'changed dynamics' of the city which has seen numerous major chains turn-tail in the face of soaring crime. The retailer told employees it would not be renewing its leases at the Westfield Mall or at the Nordstrom Rack across the street. The mall location will shutter at the end of August, and the Rack store will remain open until July 1, according to the Washington Post. Nordstrom chief stores officer Jamie Nordstrom blamed the state of San Francisco in recent years for reducing foot traffic 'and...