San Francisco Shopping Mall Ravaged by Crime and Store Closures Sells at Auction for a Fraction of its Worth

The San Francisco Centre Mall—long known to many as the Westfield Emporium—has been sold at auction for a fraction of its once-towering valuation, marking another dramatic chapter in the city’s ongoing retail decline.

Even before Covid reshaped consumer habits, local business owners were already struggling with increasingly permissive crime policies, including lenient responses to shoplifting and low or no-bail releases. Those conditions, combined with a surge in thefts and open drug use near storefronts, pushed many retailers out of downtown San Francisco. When the pandemic struck, the exodus accelerated, and the Centre Mall steadily emptied until it resembled a ghost town.

According to the Daily Mail, the seven-story mall—valued at roughly $1.2 billion less than a decade ago—was auctioned on Wednesday to lenders Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase. By late 2022, its appraised value had already plunged to $290 million, a staggering 76 percent drop from its pre-pandemic peak. Yet the property ultimately sold for even less, with lenders acquiring the 1.5-million-square-foot complex for just $133 million, or roughly 11 percent of its highest valuation.

Before the pandemic and the rise in downtown crime, the mall had been a bustling retail destination for both locals and tourists. As foot traffic declined and major brands departed, its fortunes deteriorated in step with the broader challenges facing San Francisco’s urban core.

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Newsom managed to destroy the most desirable place to live. That’s a level of incompetence I won’t see again in my lifetime. https://t.co/35mXlAbk4l

— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) November 13, 2025

California Governor Gavin Newsom, rumored to be eyeing a future presidential run, is likely to face questions about how state and local policies contributed to the mall’s collapse. Whether stricter law enforcement might have changed the outcome remains impossible to know. What is clear is that a once-vibrant commercial landmark now stands as a hollow reminder of a city struggling to regain its footing.

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