San Francisco's largest shopping mall, the Westfield San Francisco Centre, has closed its doors earlier than expected, marking the latest chapter in a steep decline for the once-thriving retail hub.
The mall shuttered on Saturday, January 24, two days ahead of its planned closure, with a sign posted at the entrance reading, "Closed until further notice," FoxBusiness reported
An employee at Ecco, the mall's last remaining store, confirmed that both the store and the mall had permanently closed ahead of schedule.
In recent months, a string of retailers, including anchor stores Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, had already left, leaving the mall largely empty.
Shake Shack also closed its location inside the mall in December 2025, affecting 26 employees, as new ownership demanded tenants vacate the premises.
The mall's new owner, DBJPM 2016-SFC Emporium LLC, took control following a foreclosure auction on November 12, 2025, after the former operators, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Properties, defaulted on a loan and abandoned the property.
Remaining tenants were notified that their leases had been "extinguished" and were required to leave immediately, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
"The mall has been spiraling downward over the past few years after once being a powerhouse," said real estate consultant Peter Gerney. At its peak, the San Francisco Centre generated about $1,000 per square foot.
Today, its value has dropped by roughly $1 billion from 2016 levels, while it owes around $558 million on an interest-only loan.
BREAKING CALIFORNIa: San Francisco's Biggest Mall Just SHUT DOWN Overnight
— Darren Stallcup - World Peace Movement (@darren_stallcup) January 25, 2026
The once iconic San Francisco Centre has finally locked its doors early today, ahead of its planned Monday closure, leaving the heart of the city eerily empty after years of crime, homelessness, mass… pic.twitter.com/noUYmUhzNM
Westfield SF Centre Shuts Amid Tenant Exodus
The mall's decline has been fueled by multiple factors. Between 2020 and 2023, it lost 46% of its stores, including major anchors.
By October 2025, the mall was 93% vacant. Other challenges included rampant shoplifting, drug activity, a significant unhoused population nearby, and the long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smaller tenants such as Zara and John Varvatos also fled after larger retailers departed, contributing to the mass exodus.
Locals marked the mall's closure with an unofficial farewell on January 25, gathering outside the building to dance and celebrate near a DJ setup.
According to The Sun, while the early closure may not have been influenced by the social media post that documented the event, it symbolized the end of an era for the 1.5 million-square-foot complex.
The Westfield San Francisco Centre's closure is part of a broader retail trend.
Roughly 1,170 malls have shut down annually in the US since 2017, with department stores increasingly losing economic relevance to e-commerce and big-box retailers.
Originally published on vcpost.com
