Macy’s will close its giant, iconic San Francisco store in Union Square, city officials confirmed Tuesday, a devastating blow for a downtown already reeling from record office vacancies and widespread retail closures.
The news came the same day that the retail giant announced that it would close 150 stores through 2026, including 50 in 2024.
Macy’s, headquartered in New York City, said it would invest in 350 locations and continue to expand small-format stores. In addition, the company said it would expand its luxury offerings and the number of its upscale Bloomingdale’s department stores and Bluemercury beauty products stores.
Macy’s did not say what it would do with the Bloomingdale’s it operates in the ailing San Francisco Centre mall about three blocks away. No one from the company was available for comment.
Mayor London Breed issued a statement assuring that San Francisco was not among the initial wave of planned closures, and that Macy’s “will stay open for the foreseeable future” while the company explores selling the iconic 170 O’Farrell St. location, which for generations has been a destination during winter holidays.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, whose district includes Union Square, said the company “confirmed that the building will remain open until the end of the year, and it will be put up for sale” in a phone call Tuesday morning.
The news could be a blow to Breed’s reelection efforts. She has touted her efforts to revitalize The City’s struggling downtown even as office vacancies have continued to rise to record levels as of the final quarter of 2023 and numerous stores have continued to close.
Macy’s forthcoming departure is the latest in a retail exodus from downtown San Francisco, with Old Navy and a massive Nordstrom also closing within the last year. The Westfield Mall parent company relinquished ownership of the San Francisco Centre mall where Nordstrom also operated last year as well.
City officials had been buoyed less than two months ago to report that the number of people visiting downtown destinations — including Union Square — had jumped over the winter holiday season, while reports of larceny theft were down.
The City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development contributed $549,000 for the 10-day Winter Walk, a pedestrian-only event in which some streets around Union Square were closed to traffic and filled with decorations and food trucks. The City had also invested $440,000 to open restaurants in the square and had posted a police mobile-command van next to the square for the past couple of years.
“The City will continue to work closely with Macy’s and any potential new owner to ensure this iconic location continues to serve San Francisco for decades to come,” Breed said.
Peskin issued a statement saying that he was “devastated” by a morning call with Macy’s corporate leadership confirming the company’s downsizing plans, including in San Francisco. But Peskin also said the building offers promise.
“This site is an opportunity development site, with potential for mixed-use, food and beverage and residential on the upper floors, even before the pandemic,” said Peskin, who called for working with the Union Square Alliance, an organization funded by local businesses, to market the incentives and opportunities The City has adopted to support commercial-to-residential conversions.
In addition, Peskin said The City should move quickly to make improvements to Powell Street, build a sound stage in Union Square that Peskin has championed, and streamline permits and waive fees to bring life to alleyways such as Maiden Lane, Harlan Place and Claude Lane with late-night events and other activations.
“Every challenge can have a flip side with the right political will, so let’s get to work,” Peskin said.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener wrote on X that the closure was “horrible news” for The City, but said more about Macy’s “corporate strategy shift toward smaller stores, largely in strip malls” rather than “any SF-specific reason.”
“With that said, we must aggressively & creatively reimagine downtown,” he wrote. “We’re advancing legislation to expedite SF’s ability to make needed changes.”
Ex // Top Stories
Torrey will play the Make Out Room as part of an album release party for their second full-length record
Oakland native Andrew Wilson’s solo exhibition at Jonathan Carver Moore gallery showcases a body of artwork 10 years in the making
The Year of the Dragon symbolizes good fortune, which planners say helped them with booking the festival’s celebrity grand marshal
Mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie wasted little time calling a press conference in the square across from Macy’s, where he was quick to blame The City’s current political leaders for Macy’s decision because of mental illness and drug use being so visible on city streets. He also faulted a bureaucracy that he said makes it difficult and unpredictable for business operators to set up shop in The City.
“I am optimistic about the future of our city, but we need a plan,” said Lurie, an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune and founder of antipoverty nonprofit Tipping Point. “And it starts with addressing the public-safety crisis on our streets. It starts with addressing the mental health and drug crisis on our streets.”
“If you walk around the streets here, you see people in mental distress. You see people doing drugs openly on the streets outside,” he said.
San Francisco mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie stands in front of the Macy's in Union Square on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, shortly after The City learned the department store was leaving downtown.
Patrick Hoge/The ExaminerThat is not an easy environment for businesses, Lurie said, who said he has friends who won’t go to downtown San Francisco and instead will go to Marin Country Mart in Larkspur or Santana Row in San Jose.
Lurie recalled visiting the Stonestown Galleria mall recently, and it was full of people. “So no one can tell me that retail is dead,” he said.
Told of Lurie’s criticisms, Peskin responded with a sharp retort.
“I’d expect no less from some Richie Rich guy whose rich friends are scared of urban life outside of the Pacific Heights,” he said in a text message to The Examiner.
Mark Farrell, the former interim mayor who is also running against Breed and Lurie in November, posted on X that the closure was “a gut punch” and “scary news for San Francisco.”
“As Mayor, I will be aggressive & proactive in providing clean & safe streets, so that we make our downtown & City more welcoming for residents, businesses, & visitors,” he wrote.
Tom Brock came out to tell Lurie of his anger at the conditions outside of the building at the corner of Powell and O’Farrell streets that his family owns.
Lower Powell Street is notable for several blocks for the large number of empty storefronts leading to the cable-car turnaround, which is across Market Street from the now largely empty San Francisco Centre mall.
“We’ve just had a few years of vandalism, repeatedly broken windows, urination, people sleeping in the doorway doing drugs,” Brock said. “Our security cameras are a nightmare.”
Brock complained that The City had shifted its responsibility for keeping the streets clean to the Union Square Alliance, which Brock does not feel has done an adequate job.
Marisa Rodriguez, CEO of the Union Square Alliance, issued a statement asserting that Macy’s would not be closing the Union Square store until a buyer can be found for the building, and she called for continued efforts to keep the store open.
“Macy’s will remain open and could still be open for years to come. In all likelihood, there will be a holiday shopping season and Macy’s great tree in 2024,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “Having said that, the situation is fluid and there is no getting around the fact that this announcement hurts.”
