Westfield is pulling out from operating San Francisco’s largest mall amid deteriorating conditions in the democrat– communist/globalist-controlled city, the company said in a statement.
This from dailywire.com.
The move by the real estate giant comes after Nordstrom announced in May that it would be closing its location at the Westfield San Francisco Centre in August.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported:
Westfield stopped making payments on a $558 million loan as the company and its partner, Brookfield Properties, have begun the process of offloading control of the mall.
The company said in a statement to The Chronicle:
For more than 20 years, Westfield has proudly and successfully operated San Francisco Centre, investing significantly over that time in the vitality of the property.
Given the challenging operating conditions in downtown San Francisco, which have led to declines in sales, occupancy and foot traffic, we have made the difficult decision to begin the process to transfer management of the shopping center to our lender to allow them to appoint a receiver to operate the property going forward.
The report noted that Westfield previously blamed Nordstrom’s pullout from the mall on “unsafe conditions” and “lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.”
The company added that the shopping center had “unprecedented” bad performance compared to its other locations.
When Nordstrom pulled out of the mall, Jamie Nordstrom, the company’s chief stores officer, said that:
[T]he dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past several years, impacting customer foot traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully.
In April, a Whole Foods location in downtown San Francisco closed, and a source in San Francisco City Hall told a local news outlet that drug use and criminal activity from individuals near the store played a role in the closure.
A recent report from Fox News highlighted the story of an immigrant from Afghanistan who moved to the U.S. and opened a business in San Francisco only to find that the conditions in the city are supposedly worse than in Afghanistan when it comes to enforcing the law.
The immigrant, who only goes by Zaid, told Fox News that gangs had stolen more than $100,000 in merchandise and cash from his tobacco store, Cigarettes R Cheaper, and none of them have been caught.
He said:
The politicians need to get a grip on this because it’s worse than Afghanistan or Iraq. At least in Afghanistan the Taliban will cut your hand off and people are afraid to commit such a crime.
Zaid said he sees stores around town getting robbed nearly daily, and he believes it’s because the criminals “know the police won’t do anything.”
He said the seven criminals who robbed his store were there for 20 minutes and left in two cars before police arrived.
Zaid concluded:
We have drugs issue[s], we have homeless issue[s], and on top of this these idiots come in here and take whatever they want.
The city has gone downhill – especially the last two years since COVID, I’ve never seen it worse. People are afraid to come shopping here because they are either going to get robbed or someone will break into their car.
Final thoughts, two rhetorical questions: Is what is happening to San Francisco a problem or a symptom of a greater problem? And is the greater problem which may be exemplified by cities like San Francisco actually problems each unto themselves or a collective symptom of a much greater problem?
