Departure says more about Centre mall than the city’s retail health, as small boutique stores look to make a comeback.

Department store retailer Bloomingdale's is to close its flagship location in the beleaguered San Francisco Centre mall, hitting the city's fragile retail recovery.

The luxury department store, a unit of New York-based Macy’s, announced it would close its 339,000-square-foot flagship store at the half-empty San Francisco Centre at 865 Market Street, near Union Square, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Business Times reported.

Last week, one of the last major retailers of the San Francisco Centre announced it was leaving the mall. The upcoming closure of Bloomingdale’s this spring

Bloomingdale’s will close its downtown San Francisco store in spring 2025, ending nearly two decades in the city and leaving SF Centre anchorless.

The closure will deepen the challenges faced by the struggling mall and reflects the broader decline of retail in the city.

The Bloomingdale’s announcement is just the latest major retailer to abandon the struggling San Francisco Center, once known as Westfield Mall. The shopping center is struggling to rebound from the COVID pandemic, which struck downtown San Francisco harder than most other cities.

The trend indicated “nascent signs of recovery,” with positive net absorption of 65,700 square feet — meaning more space was occupied than vacated during the quarter for the first time in two years, Cushman & Wakefield said.

Bloomingdale's will close its San Francisco flagship store by late spring, a reflection of broader retail market shifts.

Bloomingdale’s will soon close its flagship department store in the ailing San Francisco Centre, the giant downtown mall that previously lost its other major anchor tenant and is facing a possible debt auction.

SAN FRANCISCO - Bloomingdale's is closing its flagship store at the San Francisco Centre Mall on Market Street. Company spokeswoman Jennifer Chadroff said Bloomingdale's is "saddened" to say that the store will officially close its doors in San Francisco as the "vibrant city" has been home to the brand for nearly 20 years.

Safety concerns in the Union Square neighborhood spurred an exodus of retailers in 2023. San Francisco Centre’s other anchor, Nordstrom, shut its 312K SF store at the mall in 2023 after 35 years at the location, and Cinemark vacated its 52K SF theater at the mall.