Bloomingdale’s has become the latest major retail chain to close a store in downtown San Francisco.
The company confirmed that it was closing its San Francisco Center this spring, almost 20 years after it opened a 330,000 square foot store at the site.
The Bloomingdale’s announcement is just the latest major retailer to abandon the struggling San Francisco Center, once known as Westfield Mall. The shopping center is struggling to rebound from the COVID pandemic, which struck downtown San Francisco harder than most other cities.
Over the last several months, a number of other retailers have closed their stores there, including Nordstrom’s, adidas, Hollister and Lego. The mall’s Cinemark cinema closed about a year-and-a-half ago.
In addition to stores at the mall, a number of other major stores have announced their plans to leave Union Square. Almost a year ago, Macy’s said it was closing its flagship store on O’Farrell Street, after operating there for nearly a century.
The closures come a few years after a rash of daylight, smash-and-grab robberies of high-profile, luxury stores. Although the city’s crime rate has declined in recent months, some businesses say sales from downtown stores have remained sluggish.
