Westfield San Francisco Centre

The **Westfield San Francisco Centre** is an upscale shopping mall located in San Francisco, California, managed by the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and co-owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Homart Properties. It is anchored by Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, and includes a Century Theatres multiplex and a branch of San Francisco State University. It connects directly to the Powell Street transit station via an underground entrance.

## History

Originally developed by Sheldon Gordon (co-developer of The Forum Shops at Caesars and Beverly Center) the center opened in October 1991 as **San Francisco Shopping Centre** with approximately 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2) of space, the then-largest Nordstrom store (350,000 square feet) on the top several floors, the first spiral escalators in the United States, and connecting through to the adjoining Emporium-Capwell flagship store.

After a slow start, it soon became one of the top performing shopping centers in the country. In 1996, the adjoining Emporium (it had dropped the Capwell name by then) was shuttered in the wake of Federated Department Stores' buyout of its parent, Broadway Stores. The vacated store was temporarily used as a Macy's furniture store while it renovated its Union Square flagship in 1997.

In May 1997, Urban Shopping Centers, Inc., a Real Estate Investment Trust acquired a half-interest and management of the center. This was followed by Urban's own buyout by Rodamco North America N.V. (a European property firm primarily invested in the United States) in October 2000 and Rodamco's subsequent sale to a consortium including The Westfield Group in January 2002. Westfield acquired its initial 50% stake in the center at this time and soon bought the rest.

In 2003, Forest City, which had acquired redevelopment rights to the long-vacant Emporium store from Federated, reached an agreement with Westfield to jointly redevelop the two properties. The newly expanded mixed-use Westfield San Francisco Centre that was unveiled September 28, 2006, included a Kohn Pederson Fox with Kevin Kennon as the Design Principal- designed Bloomingdale's West Coast flagship store, a nine-screen Century Theatres multiplex theater featuring 2 XD screens, a 30,000 square feet Bristol Farms gourmet supermarket (closed January 2017), and a satellite campus for San Francisco State University in its 1.5 million+ ft² of space.

The redevelopment cost $440 million. Only the front facade and landmark dome of the original structure were preserved; the rest of the structure was completely gutted and replaced. Upon completion of the project, Forest City became an equity partner and along with Westfield assumed responsibility for day-to-day management. In March 2009, it was announced that Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping center was named as one of nine finalists vying for the title of “World’s Best Shopping Center” as part of the *International Council of Shopping Centers Inc.’s* inaugural “Best of the Best” awards.

In 2011, the San Francisco Police Department considered putting a substation in the mall to prevent rampant shoplifting.

## Anchors and major tenants

* Bloomingdale's (338,000 ft²; opened 2006)
* Nordstrom (350,000 ft²; opened 1988)
* Century Theatres & XD 9-screen multiplex (53,000 ft²)
* Crunchyroll (107,000 ft²)
* San Francisco State University College of Extended Learning (107,000 ft²; opened 2006)

## See also

* Westfield San Francisco Centre/Tenant List