The largest mall in San Francisco’s downtown is heading to a public foreclosure auction on Nov. 14.
The San Francisco Business Times reported First American Title Insurance Co. alerted mall operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) and Brookfield Asset Management that the deed of trust for the property will be sold at auction to the highest bidder, with the proceeds of the sale going to pay the estimated $626 million in debt owed to Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. URW and Brookfield stopped making payments on a $558M CMBS loan backed by the mall in the summer of 2023.
If the auction fails to produce a winning bidder, the lenders could enact a placeholder bid to foreclose on the mall and seize it from URW and Brookfield.
The 1.5 million-square-foot mall was formerly known as the Westfield Centre and is now branded as Emporium San Francisco Centre. The property faced declining sales in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and rising crime, resulting in the defection of nearly half of its retail tenants, most notably anchor store Nordstrom. Mayor London Breed proposed tearing down the mall and turning the space it into a soccer stadium, but nothing came of that idea.
Photo by BrokenSphere / Wikimedia Commons
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Where is the rolling eyes emoji when you want it? Soccer stadium! Damn the torpedos! Let the games begin!
Too bad the govt. in California has allowed the homeless/immigrant problem to destroy a wonderful city. The news of the San Franscisco debacle has even reached NH. Shame on California leaders.