Westfield To Relinquish Ownership of Its San Francisco Centre Mall
Westfield has decided to surrender the nine-story San Francisco Centre mall to its lenders, according to The Real Deal, which reports that the firm—owned by Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and its partner, New York-based Brookfield Properties—will cease making payments on a $558 million loan. According to The New York Times, Westfield has stated that at San Francisco Centre, sales fell 35 percent from 2019 to December 2022 whereas in nearby San Jose, sales increased 66 percent during that same period and sales across its 18 U.S. malls rose 23 percent.
Forbes reports that Nordstrom is pulling out of Westfield San Francisco Centre at the end of August by opting not to renew its lease, which will leave the mall 45 percent empty, according to the Times. A blog post at the CATO Institute notes that even before Nordstrom announced the closure, S&P had estimated that the mall’s value had declined by over 70 percent since it was appraised in 2016. Cinemark Century San Francisco, which was the movie theater at Westfield San Francisco Centre, closed permanently on Thursday (June 15) shortly before the conclusion of its lease term and “following a comprehensive review of local business conditions”, according to ABC7 News, which quotes a statement from a Cinemark representative.
According to S&P Global Ratings, “Westfield San Francisco Centre and San Francisco Emporium is a 1.45 million-sq.-ft. mixed-use (1.2 million sq. ft. of retail [553,366 sq. ft. of which is collateral] and 241,255 sq. ft. of class B office space) property located at 865 Market Street in downtown San Francisco. The Westfield San Francisco Centre portion was originally developed in 1988. The San Francisco Emporium portion, which was a redevelopment of the Emporium department store that dated back to the 1890s, was co-developed by the sponsors in 2006 into retail and class B office space.” European multinational commercial real estate company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE (previously Unibail-Rodamco SE) acquired Australian shopping center operator Westfield Corporation in June 2018, according to Wikipedia.
Last Updated on June 17, 2023 by Ramin Seddiq