Once-bustling mall worth $1.2b is sold for fraction of the price after being laid to waste in crime-

[PeteS in CA]

Once-bustling mall worth $1.2b is sold for fraction of the price after being laid to waste in crime-ravaged blue city

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15287597/westfield-emporium-san-francisco-california.html

An iconic mall in San Francisco foreclosed for a fraction of the billion-dollar valuation it once commanded as Covid shutdowns and out-of-control crime left the seven-story behemoth a shell of its former self.

Valued at $1.2 billion nearly a decade ago, the San Francisco Centre Mall, previously known as the Westfield Emporium, was sold at an auction on Wednesday to lenders Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the mall served as a shopping hub in San Francisco, with residents and tourists flocking to its vibrant energy and big-name brands.

As consumers turned away from the city's sketchy downtown and toward online shopping, however, the mall's value declined drastically. An appraisal at the end of 2022 valued the property at only $290 million, a 76 percent drop from its height before the pandemic.

But lenders purchased the property for even less than appraisals, with the final sticker price for the sprawling 1.5 million square-foot mall only $133 million - or just 11 percent of its top valuation.

The mall had been "leaking" stores for years, even pre-Covid. It's a retail ghosttown with less than 10% of its space under current lease and zero "anchor" stores. Between the risks of crime on surrounding streets, car smash-and-grab robberies, and the potential of odoriferous Sacred Homeless and crime inside the mall, their were more attractive alternatives a 10 or 20 minute drive south on I280 or US 101.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Sad, isn't it?

I consider SF the most beautiful of America's big cities.

But that beauty is not enough to convince me to revisit it anytime soon.

[Sighlass]

What the heck can you make out of a mall... Retail requires foot traffic with willing spending blow-dough. Can you make bank with renting to non-retail in office space? Work with a mall view. Apartments with a mall view (say bar off the top floors for just office and apartment dwellers).  Imagine the heating and cooling costs and the eco-warriors constantly picketing. Actually a nice looking building, so interested what the big brains can accomplish with such a structure.