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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Kari Paul in San Francisco

This mall was a symbol for San Francisco’s ‘doom loop’. Now it could become a datacenter project

Boarded-up shops at mall
The boarded-up windows of a Gap store in San Francisco during the Covid pandemic in May 2020. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Downtown San Francisco has shown signs of revival since being battered by the Covid pandemic, which led to what many called a “doom loop” of vacant buildings, a worsening homelessness crisis and dwindling public transit. But one highly visible reminder of the city’s struggle to recover remains: the San Francisco Centre mall, which sits at the heart of these urban renewal efforts and has been conspicuously boarded up since January of this year.

A number of ideas have been floated for the mall’s reopening, including a multi-level sports complex, housing and more traditional retail uses. But now, another potential plan has emerged: the shuttered mall is being considered for an AI datacenter project, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

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