Posted on 06/12/2023 7:23:13 PM PDT by Morgana
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 for Nordstrom's departure from the mall.
Westfield said the 'unprecedented' poor performance in San Francisco was a sharp contrast to the rest of its properties.
San Francisco Centre generated $455 million in sales in 2019, before the pandemic.
Last year, sales were down about a third to $298 million.
Nordstrom occupied 312,000 square feet in the mall: when it closes, Westfield San Francisco will only be 55 percent leased.
Other Westfields are on average 93 percent leased.
The mall is a smart and upmarket building, whose other retailers include Bloomingdales, Aesop, Rolex and Sephora.
Westfield's struggles will pile fresh pressure on city leaders, after multiple retailers and hotels shuttered in downtown San Francisco as it continues to battle soaring crime, open drug use and homelessness.
The famously-progressive city has been condemned for its 'harm reduction' policies, which critics say have effectively legalized drug taking. Meanwhile, its police department remains short-staffed after woke lawmakers called for defunding in the wake of George Floyd's murder.
'For more than 20 years, Westfield has proudly and successfully operated San Francisco Centre, investing significantly over that time in the vitality of the property,' the company said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
My grandfather was working on the bridge the day a number of men died—he didn’t come home until hours later having been commensurating with fellow bridge workers. The say that grandma was not pleased was an understatement. In total I think some 11 men died building the golden gate. It opened the year mom was born and she was one of the first on the bridge.
That would work. Or sell to the Sinaloa Cartel, for a more assertive investment management style.
Most cities in California are ethnically mixed, but certain majority-Asian cities, such as Monterey Park near Los Angeles, somehow manage to keep most of the riffraff out, despite all the anti-discrimination laws. Trying to lease a nice condo there once, my application was denied.
Speaker should not be wielding influence over cities or states.
This is SF’s issue and their’s alone.
...and the viruses called people (i.e. democrats) who lived in that city and destroyed it are now moving to other cities to destroy those cities next.
Where do we set the tombstone?
This sets the pace for the obamian death to America agenda. We can expect even more from the Biden outhouse.
Democratic rule results in decline. It’s happening in major cities all over the U.S.
Eleven men died building the bridge.
I can believe it. The political elite in majority Democrat California only does enough to get reelected, thereby assuring themselves their own personal income streams and access to "donations," and use the prevailing rhetoric of race and gender BS to stir the population into thinking they care about anyone other than themselves. This is as true of the Democrat celebrities of LA County, as the "venture" type of Silicon Valley, as of the culture warriors of SF and an Francisco.
This is the poster child of corruption, as indeed "democracy dies in darkness." which the political Left uses as if they are the light to oppose the darkness.
Recall only last week, the black, feminist Democrat mayor of SF bypassed the wholly Democrat Board of Supervisors, the super-majority Democrat-dominated legislature and the Democrat governor to say "Biden hadn't done enough for SF." Why Biden? Because in that hierarchy of city to fed, there are no Republicans to be seen today. Welcome to Democrat-ville. Protect the thieves, the drug dealers, the groomers, the perverts and the corrupt. There is a pattern hear. It's the pattern of the feudal state, the failed state, the authoritarian state.
Best wishes.
Eleven men died during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge:
O.A. Anderson
Chris Anderson
William Bass
O. Desper
Fred Dümmatzen
Terence Hallinan
Eldridge Hillen
Charles Lindros
Kermit Moore
Jack Norman
Louis Russell
https://www.resetsanfrancisco.org/faq/how-many-people-died-during-the-construction-of-the-golden-gate-bridge/
After blaming crime for tanking takings
Defund the police in action it’s working looting parties grow.
There are hundreds of medical practitioners, dentists, oral surgeons, periodontists, plastic surgeons, etc in the Union Square area. I wonder how this civic disaster affects them.
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