[homebucket]

Buyers selected for downtown S.F.’s shuttered shopping mall
By Laura Waxmann, Staff Writer March 4, 2026



San Francisco’s vacant downtown mall has new stewards: A pair of experienced, San Francisco-based developers, who are teaming up to reimagine the languishing 1.5 million-square-foot complex. The Chronicle has learned that Presidio Bay Ventures and Prado Group have been jointly awarded the exclusive right to purchase the now shuttered San Francisco Centre at Fifth and Mission Streets that once drew suburban families, office workers and international tourists into its glass-domed atrium and nine-screen movie theater, which officially closed in 2023. It is unclear how much the firms have agreed to pay for the massive property — sources with insight into the mall’s sale said that now that a selection has been made, a due diligence period is expected to stretch up to three months. The price guidance was set at $100 million, according to those sources, who expected any winning bid to land at over $130 million. More than a decade ago, the 5-acre complex was valued over $1 billion. Prado and Presidio Bay’s bid was selected over those of two other local developers and at least one national firm vying to purchase the shuttered mall. Their plans for repurposing the property are not known, and sources say that wasn’t a deciding factor in the group’s selection. Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, who formally took control of the mall by foreclosing on a more than $560 million outstanding loan tied to the property in November, was to sell it. The Chronicle reached out to Presidio Bay and Prado for comment on the deal and questions about next steps, but did not hear back. Real estate brokerage CBRE, which was hired to sell the mall on behalf of two banks that seized control of it through foreclosure last year, also did not respond to inquiries seeking comment.

...

The Chronicle previously reported that other bidders included San Francisco-based developers and real estate investors TMG Partners and the newly formed San Francisco Recovery Fund. The San Francisco Standard first reported the selected buyers.
Sources said that Miami-based developer Crescent Heights, which is known for luxury high-rise condos and is working to revive a long-stalled tower planned at 10 S. Van Ness Ave., also bid on the mall. Attempts to reach the firm for comment were unsuccessful. According to the sources, Crescent Heights is reported to have had the most “radical” proposal for the property: demolishing it and redeveloping the site ground-up, possibly for residential uses. Other contenders, like the SF Recovery Fund, planned to keep all or parts of the mall intact, sources said. Under the property’s zoning, redevelopment of the mall into one or several towers — either residential or office — is possible.

...

Another unknown in the mall’s pending revival is the San Francisco Unified School District, which owns a roughly 76,000-square-foot portion of the land occupied by the complex, and holds a lease that expires in 2043 and comes with a 15-year renewal option. How the mall’s future redevelopment will be impacted by this ownership stake is unclear.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/realesta...d-21943183.php