Westfield, Brookfield Handing Over Keys to San Francisco Centre

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) and Brookfield Properties are preparing to hand over control of Westfield San Francisco Centre, the 1.2-million-square-foot shopping center in downtown San Francisco’s Union Square, to lenders. The property’s ownership has ceased making payments on a $588-million loan, reported the San Francisco Business Times.

“Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward,” URW said in a statement.

Currently, San Francisco Centre is 45% vacant and its sales declined sharply between 2019 and 2022, a period which saw sales at URW’s Valley Fair Mall in San Jose experience a 66% increase, the Business Times reported.

In a statement, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said, “We’ve had numerous conversations with Westfield about the future of this site, and it’s been clear that they did not have a long-term commitment to San Francisco as they look to withdraw entirely from the United States market. With new management, we will have an opportunity to pursue a new vision for this space that focuses on what the future of downtown San Francisco can be.”

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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 16-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 7-10 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).

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