San Francisco Centre Renamed To Emporium Centre

[Alpha8472]

The San Francisco name was dropped in favor of a tribute to the The Emporium department store that opened there in 1896. Emporium Centre is the new name.

The over 100 year old Emporium glass dome is all that remains of the old Emporium store. It is quite a sight to see in person.

Sephora is closing in April. There is not much left open.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf ... 697011.php

[storewanderer]

The San Francisco name was dropped in favor of a tribute to the The Emporium department store that opened there in 1896. Emporium Centre is the new name.

The over 100 year old Emporium glass dome is all that remains of the old Emporium store. It is quite a sight to see in person.

Sephora is closing in April. There is not much left open.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf ... 697011.php

My guess is now that the Macy's building is on the market, they have decided they cannot get the amount of money they want for this building, so they will just "recommit" to it. In my opinion this is a better located and nicer building than the Macy's, but with old buildings, who knows which is actually in better condition. The direct connection to a BART line on the Emporium Center should be a huge attribute but again who knows.

I don't know what the use of changing the name is. Nobody who is in San Francisco today knows about what Emporium even was let alone cares about it.

[Alpha8472]

When you hear San Francisco Centre you immediately think homeless, crime, robberies, drug addicts, etc. They probably just wanted to get the San Francisco name off of the building. Some companies just might want to open up in the shopping center if it has no connection to the tarnished San Francisco name.

[storewanderer]

When you hear San Francisco Centre you immediately think homeless, crime, robberies, drug addicts, etc. They probably just wanted to get the San Francisco name off of the building. Some companies just might want to open up in the shopping center if it has no connection to the tarnished San Francisco name.

But it is... in San Francisco...

Time will tell what happens.

The Macy's closure and keeping Bloomingdale's open in this center may/should help the center though...

[Alpha8472]

The closure of the movie theater really caused a die off of the restaurants. The food court was surviving on the movie theater crowd. Once the movie theater closed, the restaurants were deserted.

Perhaps a movie theater or a Dave & Buster's would help out. The Metreon shopping center across the street is surviving due to the movie theater and restaurants. I don't know why the AMC across the street survived. The Century Theater had vastly superior food and larger screens in most of the auditoriums.

If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's opened up inside, then maybe the shoppers would come back. The Metreon was dying years ago around 2006. San Francisco Centre remodeled and was bustling with shoppers when Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom were going strong.

There was a Border's Books and everything at San Francisco Centre was clean and brand new looking. It was a totally different place back then.

[storewanderer]

The closure of the movie theater really caused a die off of the restaurants. The food court was surviving on the movie theater crowd. Once the movie theater closed, the restaurants were deserted.

Perhaps a movie theater or a Dave & Buster's would help out. The Metreon shopping center across the street is surviving due to the movie theater and restaurants. I don't know why the AMC across the street survived. The Century Theater had vastly superior food and larger screens in most of the auditoriums.

If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's opened up inside, then maybe the shoppers would come back. The Metreon was dying years ago around 2006. San Francisco Centre remodeled and was bustling with shoppers when Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom were going strong.

There was a Border's Books and everything at San Francisco Centre was clean and brand new looking. It was a totally different place back then.

At this point Metreon has to fight to keep its tenants and stay viable. I think it should because I don't think it is as reliant on tourists and office workers as the core of Union Square despite being so close.

Trader Joe's already has a store near Emporium Centre, it is pretty new. I think it may have contributed to the decision of Bristol Farms closing at Emporium Centre (but most of its business was food court, not groceries).

[buckguy]

The closure of the movie theater really caused a die off of the restaurants. The food court was surviving on the movie theater crowd. Once the movie theater closed, the restaurants were deserted.

Perhaps a movie theater or a Dave & Buster's would help out. The Metreon shopping center across the street is surviving due to the movie theater and restaurants. I don't know why the AMC across the street survived. The Century Theater had vastly superior food and larger screens in most of the auditoriums.

If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's opened up inside, then maybe the shoppers would come back. The Metreon was dying years ago around 2006. San Francisco Centre remodeled and was bustling with shoppers when Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom were going strong.

There was a Border's Books and everything at San Francisco Centre was clean and brand new looking. It was a totally different place back then.

The place for a Dave & Busters is a mid-market suburban mall. They have a few stores in urban tourist traps like Times Square, but Fisherman's Wharf would be more their speed for that in San Francisco.

Reviving this property requires something different than imagining it as a mall for mid-market suburbanites. That sort of thing never succeeds. A Landmark theater would be a good anchor tenant, but there's already on ein the Civic Center area. They have multiple locations in DC which have survived COVID so that model could work, but it doesn't look like they have much money to spend on upkeep in those theaters so I would wonder about their ability to expand. The "traditional" anchors aren't building new stores and there isn't a new generation of "mall stores", so the owners need some real imagination. Doing a downtown version of a lifestyle center is probably the default but most of those chains already are in the Bay area.

[pseudo3d]

The closure of the movie theater really caused a die off of the restaurants. The food court was surviving on the movie theater crowd. Once the movie theater closed, the restaurants were deserted.

Perhaps a movie theater or a Dave & Buster's would help out. The Metreon shopping center across the street is surviving due to the movie theater and restaurants. I don't know why the AMC across the street survived. The Century Theater had vastly superior food and larger screens in most of the auditoriums.

If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's opened up inside, then maybe the shoppers would come back. The Metreon was dying years ago around 2006. San Francisco Centre remodeled and was bustling with shoppers when Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom were going strong.

There was a Border's Books and everything at San Francisco Centre was clean and brand new looking. It was a totally different place back then.

Metreon was a unique case because it was designed to be a branded consumer products hub with lots of one-of-a-kind shopping and entertainment. When those sponsors pulled out and not replaced, that's when it started to suffer.

[ClownLoach]

The San Francisco name was dropped in favor of a tribute to the The Emporium department store that opened there in 1896. Emporium Centre is the new name.

The over 100 year old Emporium glass dome is all that remains of the old Emporium store. It is quite a sight to see in person.

Sephora is closing in April. There is not much left open.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/sf ... 697011.php

My guess is now that the Macy's building is on the market, they have decided they cannot get the amount of money they want for this building, so they will just "recommit" to it. In my opinion this is a better located and nicer building than the Macy's, but with old buildings, who knows which is actually in better condition. The direct connection to a BART line on the Emporium Center should be a huge attribute but again who knows.

I don't know what the use of changing the name is. Nobody who is in San Francisco today knows about what Emporium even was let alone cares about it.

The problem is that every retailer they would want has left, and nobody's going to go in unless those retailers are present. You would need a commitment from many of these retailers who obviously were harassed, shoplifted, etc. out of business to reopen before anyone else new would join them. Every retailer I've worked with has their "secret code" of "high compatability co-tenants" that they want to see in a center with them. Nobody is going to take the first step here to sign up, and I don't see anyone returning either. Some of these stores are small but incredibly productive, like the Lego store. I have heard of Lego store locations bringing in six figures a day on big release days and the holiday season. Their best stores like South Coast Plaza are still so insanely busy that they have long queue lines to enter on weekends and holidays (and once you've waited in line they are packed to the gills inside too). Lego left here. Apple, another surviving mall necessity these days, is located outside the mall. Really don't see what would attract anyone to open here except a big money giveaway.

You would need what does not exist anymore, a government funded redevelopment board, to fix this. The redevelopment board would seek a group of retailers to all commit at once in exchange for massive subsidies, tax credits, and cash incentives. California shut those down over a decade ago however and that means this is no longer an option. These boards did a perfect job of coordinating mass lease signings and many of the late 90s to 2000s power centers and big boxes were built in these deals.

[reymann]

the retail exodus in san francisco will drive the city into chapter 9 bankruptcy and honestly it may not be the worst thing. how will SF look post-bankruptcy?