On Thursday San Francisco’s mayor London Breed “proposed remaking the city’s struggling downtown by tearing down abandoned retail space…” reports CNN, “and building new structures to reshape the struggling city…”
Breed’s comments come as San Francisco faces empty offices, a cratering commercial real estate market, and an exodus of retailers from its once-bustling downtown area, especially as pandemic work-from-home policies saw many residents leaving for less expensive parts of the country… Breed argued that an overall shift to online shopping post-pandemic has contributed to declining foot traffic in the area.
“You can convert certain spaces. A Westfield Mall could become something completely different than what it currently is,” she said. “We can even tear down the whole building and build a whole new soccer stadium. We can create lab space or look at it as another company in some other capacity,” she added…
Many tech companies in the city were quick to switch to remote work or flexible hybrid policies over the last few years, resulting in many workers filtering out of the city. Office vacancies in San Francisco have reached a 30-year high, negatively impacting the city’s commercial real estate market and local retailers and restaurants, which have experienced declining sales and foot traffic. “Would I like for everyone to come back to the office five days a week? Of course, I would. But is that going to happen? Probably not. So, let’s make some adjustments to do everything we can to reimagine what parts of San Francisco can be,” Breed said.
