Westfield San Francisco Centre

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Westfield San Francisco Centre
Interior view

Location	San Francisco, California, USA
Opening date	October 1988
Developer	Sheldon Gordon
Management	The Westfield Group
Owner	The Westfield Group & Forest City Enterprises
No. of stores and services	170
No. of anchor tenants	2
Total retail floor area	1.25 million ft² retail & 250,000 ft² office [1]
No. of floors	9
Website	westfield.com/sanfrancisco

Westfield San Francisco Centre is an upscale, urban shopping center located in San Francisco, California managed by The Westfield Group and co-owned by Westfield and Forest City Enterprises. It is anchored by Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, and includes a Century Theatres multiplex, a Bristol Farms gourmet store and a branch of San Francisco State University.

1 History
2 Anchors & Major Tenants
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Originally developed by Sheldon Gordon (co-developer of The Forum Shops at Caesars and Beverly Center) the center opened in October 1988 as San Francisco Shopping Centre with approximately 500,000 square feet of space, the then-largest Nordstrom store (350,000 square feet) on the top several floors, the first spiral escalators in the United States, and connecting through to the adjoining Emporium-Capwell flagship store.

After a slow start, it soon became one of the top performing shopping centers in the country. In 1996, the adjoining Emporium (it had dropped the Capwell name by then) was shuttered in the wake of Federated Department Stores' buyout of its parent, Broadway Stores. The vacated store was temporarily used as a Macy's furniture store while it renovated its Union Square flagship in 1997.

In May 1997, Urban Shopping Centers, Inc., a Real Estate Investment Trust acquired a half-interest and management of the center. This was followed by Urban's own buyout by Rodamco North America N.V. (a European property firm primarily invested in the United States) in October 2000 and Rodamco's subsequent sale to a consortium including The Westfield Group in January 2002. Westfield acquired its initial 50% stake in the center at this time and soon bought the rest.

In 2003, Forest City, which had acquired redevelopment rights to the long vacant Emporium store from Federated, reached an agreement with Westfield to jointly redevelop the two properties. The newly expanded mixed-use Westfield San Francisco Centre that was unveiled September 28, 2006, includes Bloomingdale's West Coast flagship store, a nine-screen Century Theatres multiplex theater, and a satellite campus for San Francisco State University in its 1.5 million ft² of space.

The redevelopment cost $440 million. Only the front facade and landmark dome of the original structure were preserved; the rest of the structure was completely gutted and replaced. Upon completion of the project, Forest City became an equity partner and along with Westfield assumed responsibility for day-to-day management.

The Westfield San Francisco Centre is the largest urban shopping center west of the Mississippi River.

[edit] Anchors & Major Tenants

Bloomingdale's (338,000 ft²; opened 2006)
Nordstrom (312,000 ft²; opened 1988)
Century Theatres 9-screen multiplex (53,000 ft²)
Bristol Farms (30,000 ft²; opened 2006)
San Francisco State University College of Extended Learning (107,000 ft²; opened 2006)