It used to be the crown jewel. If you grew up in the Bay Area or visited San Francisco anytime between 1988 and 2019, the massive shopping complex at 5th and Market was a mandatory stop. You probably remember the spiral escalators—those curved masterpieces of engineering by Mitsubishi Electric that felt slightly futuristic every time you rode them up toward the massive glass dome. But walk by there today and the energy is... different. It's quiet.
The San Francisco Centre, formerly known as the Westfield San Francisco Centre, has become a bit of a lightning rod for national conversations about urban decay, retail "death spirals," and the future of downtown cores. Honestly, though, the story is way more complicated than just "retail is dying." It’s a mix of bad timing, changing work habits, and a massive shift in how we actually use city spaces.
The Identity Crisis of the Westfield San Francisco Centre
For years, Westfield was the gold standard. It wasn't just a mall; it was a 1.5 million-square-foot behemoth that anchored the entire Union Square shopping district. When the expansion opened in 2006, integrating the old Emporium building’s facade and that iconic 102-foot-wide dome, it felt like San Francisco was doubling down on high-end physical retail. It worked, too. For a long time, this was one of the highest-grossing malls in the country per square foot.
Then 2020 happened.
The pandemic didn't just close the doors temporarily; it gutted the foot traffic that the mall relied on. You’ve got to remember that this specific location lived on three types of people: tourists, office workers from the Financial District, and convention-goers from Moscone Center. When the tech companies went remote, the office workers vanished. When the conventions cancelled, the hotels emptied. The mall was left standing there with high rents and no audience.
By the time 2023 rolled around, things got real. Westfield (the global retail giant Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield) and its partner Brookfield Properties basically said "we're out." They stopped making payments on a $558 million loan and handed the keys back to the lenders. It was a massive headline-grabber. People saw it as the ultimate sign that San Francisco was "over." But if you look at the data, it was a business decision based on a specific appraisal drop—the mall's value had plummeted from $1.2 billion in 2016 to significantly less by the time they walked away.
Why the Nordstrom Exit Changed Everything
You can't talk about the Westfield San Francisco Centre without talking about Nordstrom. It was the anchor. Not just an anchor, but the anchor. Spanning five floors and 312,000 square feet, that Nordstrom was a destination. When they announced they were leaving in May 2023, it felt like the floor dropped out.
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Nordstrom’s Chief Stores Officer, Jamie Nordstrom, was pretty blunt about it. He cited the "dynamics" of the downtown San Francisco market. Translation? Lower foot traffic and concerns over public safety. While some people want to blame "crime" exclusively, retail experts like those at CoStar Group point out that the sheer lack of people in the streets makes shoplifting harder to manage and foot traffic impossible to sustain. If nobody is walking past your window to get to their office job, you aren't making sales.
The Realities of the "Doom Loop" Narrative
People love the term "doom loop." It’s catchy. The idea is that as stores close, tax revenue drops, city services decline, more people leave, and more stores close. Is that what happened here? Sorta. But it’s also a bit of a simplification.
- Remote work hit SF harder than almost any other US city.
- The mall is located right on the edge of the Tenderloin and SoMa, areas that have struggled with open-air drug use and homelessness for decades, but those issues became much more visible when the crowds of tourists disappeared.
- The rise of e-commerce meant that if you weren't providing an "experience," people just stayed home.
Interestingly, while the mall was struggling, other parts of the city were doing okay. Hayes Valley and the Fillmore stayed vibrant because they serve locals, not commuters. The San Francisco Centre was built for a version of the city that required 200,000 people to commute into the core every morning. When that stopped, the business model broke.
Who Owns it Now and What's Next?
After Westfield walked away, the property went into receivership. Gregg Williams of Trident Real Estate Group was appointed to manage the transition. It’s no longer officially "Westfield." It’s just the San Francisco Centre.
There has been a ton of wild speculation about what to do with the space. Mayor London Breed even floated the idea of tearing it down and building a soccer stadium. Is that realistic? Probably not. The cost of demolition and the structural complexity of being right on top of a BART and MUNI station makes that a multi-billion dollar pipe dream.
More likely? A "mixed-use" pivot.
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Think about it. You have a massive building with incredible infrastructure. Some experts, including architectural firms like Gensler, have looked at converting parts of these massive retail footprints into labs, offices (the "cool" kind), or even housing. However, converting a deep-floor-plate mall into apartments is notoriously difficult because you can't easily get natural light into the middle of the building.
The Current State of the Mall
If you go there today, it’s not a ghost town, but it’s definitely thin. Bloomingdale's is still there. They own their actual square footage, which is a big reason why they didn't leave when Nordstrom did. There are still smaller retailers hanging on, and the movie theater (Cinemark) remains a draw.
But the vibe has shifted from "luxury shopping destination" to "trying to find a new purpose." The receivers are working on bringing in new tenants, potentially non-retail ones. We’re talking about "med-tail" (medical clinics in retail spaces), pickelball courts, or educational annexes for local universities. UC Davis and SF State have already looked at downtown expansions.
Lessons from Other Cities
San Francisco isn't alone. The Water Tower Place in Chicago and the Gallery in Philadelphia have faced similar reckonings. The era of the "Vertical Urban Mall" might just be over. These buildings were designed for a 1990s world where shopping was the primary hobby of the middle class.
Today, people want "third places" that aren't just about spending money. If the San Francisco Centre is going to survive, it has to become a place where people want to be, not just a place where they go to buy a pair of jeans they could have ordered on their phone.
The biggest challenge is the "safety" perception. You can have the coolest stores in the world, but if people are afraid to take the train to 5th and Market, they won't come. The city has increased police presence in the area and started "ambassador" programs to make the transition from the BART station to the mall entrance feel more secure. It's helping, but reputations take years to rebuild.
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How to Navigate the Area Today
If you're planning to visit, don't expect the 2015 experience. It's different. But it's also a fascinating look at a city in transition.
- Parking is still easy at the 5th & Mission garage across the street, though it’s pricey.
- The Food Court in the basement level is still one of the better quick-lunch spots in that part of town, even with some vacancies.
- Bloomingdale’s is still a high-end experience if you need to touch and feel luxury goods before buying.
- Public Transit is still the best way to get there. The Powell Street station drops you literally inside the building.
Honestly, the Westfield San Francisco Centre (or San Francisco Centre) is currently a giant experiment. Can a city take a massive, failing retail box and turn it into something that reflects the "new" San Francisco?
It’s easy to be cynical and say the city is dying. It’s harder, and more accurate, to say the city is changing. The mall's struggle is just the most visible part of that skin-shedding process.
Actionable Insights for Moving Forward
If you are a business owner or an investor looking at the San Francisco market, don't just look at the headlines. Look at the foot traffic patterns. The "Goldilocks" zone for retail in SF has shifted away from the massive malls and toward neighborhood "hubs."
For locals and tourists: Keep supporting the businesses that stay. The only way a downtown recovers is through "eyes on the street." The Cinemark theater at the Centre is one of the best in the city—clean, modern, and usually has the latest tech. Going to a movie there does more for the area's recovery than any city council meeting ever will.
The future of the San Francisco Centre won't be decided by a single big tenant. It will be decided by whether the city can make the surrounding three blocks feel like a place people actually want to hang out in again. It’s a tall order, but San Francisco has a weird habit of reinventing itself just when everyone else has written its obituary.
Keep an eye on the zoning meetings and the receiver's reports. The next two years will determine if this space remains a monument to 20th-century retail or becomes a blueprint for 21st-century urban life.
If you're visiting soon, check the mall's official website for current hours, as they have been known to shift based on staffing and security needs. Stay aware of your surroundings, as you should in any major city center, but don't let the "doom loop" talk keep you from seeing the incredible architecture that still defines the space. The dome is still there. The spiral escalators still turn. The city is still breathing.