San Francisco — Westfield plans to pull out of San Francisco and surrender the San Francisco Centre mall to the property’s lender, reports CNN. The decision follows the closure of stores including Banana Republic and Nordstrom. A spokesperson for Westfield previously attributed the closure of the latter to “unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees.”
According to SFGATE, Westfield and its partner, Brookfield Properties, have ceased loan payments on the mall. In a statement provided to the publication, Westfield noted that it has operated San Francisco Centre for more than 20 years and that it has “made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender,” citing “declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic.” The company also stated that the property’s debt “is non-recourse and this action has no impact on the rest of [Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s] debt.”