San Francisco Centre, once a bustling mall adjacent to the city’s Union Square shopping district and now in default to the tune of $625.6 million, was to be auctioned off on Thursday, but the sale has been postponed. An auction is now set for Dec. 17, according to documents from the San Francisco City and County Assessor’s office and the First American Title Insurance Company.
A slew of tenants have fled the struggling shopping center in recent years as crime escalated in the area. A Nordstrom flagship, which had anchored the property, left in 2023. Also that year, American Eagle took Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to court, alleging “neglect” and “a blind eye to ‘rampant criminal activity.’” The retailer closed the location permanently over the summer, according to a WARN notice from the California Employment Development Department.
The mall owner last year ultimately handed over the keys to its lenders. A San Francisco Superior Court judge in October last year placed the property’s assets under receivership, and the receiver, Trident Pacific, appointed JLL to manage it. Gregg Williams, principal receiver of Trident Pacific, told the court that month that security was the property’s overwhelming issue, including smash-and-grab robberies, and that he intended to install security agents and dogs at each entrance and exit. In June the center announced seven new tenants.
Neither Williams nor JLL immediately responded to multiple inquiries regarding the auction or a rebrand, announced to great fanfare earlier in the year, that hasn’t materialized. The mall was to be renamed “Emporium Centre San Francisco,” a nod to the 19th century Emporium department store that once stood there.
