In addition to selling its Men’s Store in Union Square, which will be shuttered and redeveloped, Macy’s is in contract to sell its 280,000-square-foot Stonestown Galleria location, which opened in 1952, to General Growth Properties.

And while sale does include a temporary leaseback of the store, it’s only until GGP has fully developed its plans for redeveloping the location. We’ll keep you posted and plugged-in as the plans progress.

49 thoughts on “Macy’s Selling Stonestown Galleria Store, Will Be Redeveloped”
  1. The store is listed as having 204 associates which suggests a sales volume in the mid $30M’s. Not bad for a Macy’s – location wise – but at (only) ~ $125/gsf it would seem to fall into the “can make better use of the space” category.

    This was the Emporium’s first branch – and reportedly either their second or third highest volume store – but it would seem Macy’s didn’t find a way to adapt to SF’s ever rising incomes. I can only guess how much – and how much better – the Nordstrom there does.

    1. This particular store hasn’t seen any upgrades since the 80s. I recognize that flooring which was installed in many of the stores back in the late 80s. On a good day it’s tired. Glad to see it go.

      The entire Stonestown suburban compound should be razed and rebuilt. Think Pentagon City.

      1. You are aware, I assume, that it was ALREADY rebuilt (in 1987). And while one might argue that – @ 30 years old – the rebuild is nearing its shelf life, it seems well suited to its suburban neighborhood.

          1. Or maybe happily, for the people who actually live there and are satisfied with what exists. Of course if you’re one of then and are unhappy b/c you want to live in the equivalent of the Upper East Side – or maybe Alexandria, since you referenced PC – then you have my sympathy…but I’m curious why you moved into an area you didn’t like on the hope that it would radically transform itself.

          2. So, according to you, I had to accept the status quo for my neighborhood when I moved into it 9 years ago. I’m not allowed to think about ways to improve the greater good of my community, city and region. That being said, I then don’t have the right to complain about lack of housing (affordable or otherwise), traffic, transit or the color of my house. I should be satisfied with what exists (or move to the UES or Arlington (Pentagon City is in Arlington, not Alexandria), based on your false assumption). Oh okay.

          3. Your house? I’m not sure, what color is it?

            But seriously: yes of course you can complain about anything, and hope for anything. And if it’s things like having the street repaved or more street trees or whatnot, then you’ll likely have plenty of company. But if you want to turn an essentially mid density – suburban – neighborhood into a high density one, the people who live there and vote are likely to oppose it. And they get to do that, too.

            The claim of “greater good” for the “…city and region” is a generously broad concept, but I’m not convinced turning SF from a city of 3/4 of a million into one of 4/4 or even 5/4 of a million is a big part of that…or even any part of it. And as a resident of the “region” who – I suspect – will be asked to send tax dollar$ over west on the premise that making The City even brighter and shinier somehow benefits everyone else, I’ll remain the Doubting Notcom.

  2. With a study underway to underground the M train here, hopefully the redevelopment can look like Parkmerced’s – a dense, urban transit village with heights ranging up to 15 stories or so. Excited to see some west side density and walkability!

    1. Parkmerced is hardly a transit village considering the train doesn’t even stop there. Walkability to where considering there are limited options of crossing the 19th Ave mess.

      If Bay Area (not SF, Bay Area) transit agencies could work together, both the M and a new BART line would run under 19th Ave to (1) improve transit reach and effectiveness and (2) help create true transit villages that incorporate reasonable height and density. However, NIMBYs far outnumber sensibility and vision.

      1. There’s a plan to extend the train into Parkmerced as part of the rebuild. 2 or 3 new stations, IIRC. Odds of a BART line into the Sunset is beneath contemplation.

        1. “Odds of a BART line into the Sunset is beneath contemplation.”

          Well, not really beneath contemplation. There has been a lot of talk over the years about where a new BART should run in SF if it were to be built. Many support the idea of turning it south after running under Geary to connect with Daly City.

          Extending the M into Parkmerced should proceed, but if SF decides to do it alone and only invest the projected $2.5-$3B required to underground a small portion of the M line then it better connect to BART at Daly City. That’s not contemplation, it’s common sense.

          1. No Mark, it is just a fantasy, a common fantasy. Much better uses for the limited transit money

          2. My New Year’s resolution notwithstanding, I have to agree w/ Jake: BART has more important uses for its funds…like overpaying its janitors, and other lavish compensations.

            And while the largesse of the gullible voters seems to have no limit – yet – whatever comes along isn’t likely to be spent making it easier for San Franciscan’s to get around their own city.

          3. Please elaborate on better uses for the limited transit money. I’d love to hear your solutions.

          4. Based on the numbers for the 28 and 29 lines, the current ridership roughly corresponding to that corridor is in the ballpark of 30,000 boardings per day.
            That’s nothing to scoff at, but it’s still much smaller than the ridership demand of other under-served transit corridors such as Geary and Van Ness.
            It should go on the list of future subway lines, for sure, but it will have to take third or fourth priority.

      2. Sadly BART or a MUNI underground won’t come to 19th. Ever. IMO.

        It’s a mess and I would not want to live on 19th or within several blocks of 19th. The only homes that catch a break are south of Sloat – because they have backyard alleyways upon which their garages front.

        There probably is no solution to the 19th mess. Pie in the sky and assuming no underground BART/MUNI? Take out the homes along 19th. Turn it into a greenbelt – a la Sunset – and add a lane in either direction. Like I said, pie in the sky.

        1. There would be way too much opposition to claiming homes along several miles of 19th Ave. Plus cost. Adding a lane in each direction won’t solve the worsening traffic problems as this solution only addresses vehicles, not transit. In effect, you’re just creating a wider surface freeway.

          Turning 19th Ave into Sunset isn’t feasible either, the latter which recently experienced a traffic calming redo (lights at every block/speed reduction to 30).

          19th Ave is a major artery in the city as well as the only direct link between Marin and points south. Freeway opposition is too strong, so it looks like we need to focus on transit upgrades to get people out of their cars…major transit upgrades.

          1. Transit upgrades are fine, but I doubt – at this point – enough people will get out of their cars and take public transportation to make a difference. You are right, the situation is worsening and when I need to go to the Richmond district I usually take the “scenic route” and go out of my way to stay off 19th.

            In my hood cars/household is inching up and, as the Park Merced build out goes on, there will be more and more cars in that area – Park Merced is supposed to add (net) thousands of units.

          2. Half the battle is building transit for those who use it. The other half is getting those who don’t use it to switch.

          3. 750 billion plus for the future extension to Daly City BART (from brotherhood way to a redesigned BART Daly City Station) bi-county approvals etc…

            expect gridlock in your future unless the M-Line project speeds up quite a bit…

        2. A big dig a la Boston on 19th to underground the freeway seems a slightly less ludicrous fantasy than just taking all these homes

        3. I live close to 19th. I know nothing about the unsolvable mess you are referring to. My commute to downtown is 25 minutes in ideal condition, but more like 30-35 minutes in commute hour. I won’t want to live in suburban area south of Sloat. I am pretty happy to walk to Irving and Golden Gate Park.

          1. Clearly you don’t drive down 19th Ave south of Irving during most of the day/weekend when it’s bumper to bumper. If you’re close to Irving/GGP of couse you’re commute is going to be shorter to downtown, but not everyone is going downtown who drives on 19th Ave. As I mentioned earlier it’s the only major road linking Marin and San Mateo counties, plus city travel between the Richmond and points south.

          2. I don’t drive down 19th, thank god. Is there any main road that is not jammed during commute hour? Would you rather drive on Bay Bridge or 880?

            I took a bus on 19th at 5pm yesterday. It works pretty good for me. The traffic usually flow reasonably well until it reaches north of Lawton.

      3. As Jake said, I’m referring to the redevelopment plans for Parkmerced (google Parkmerced Vision or look for past posts here on SS). It’s gonna have retail itself and be a whole walkable neighborhood, with the M rerouted through it and likely put underground.

        I like your idea of a BART line going out Geary then down 19th – it would be a great way to get people out of cars on the west side. I think we have some higher transit priorities (Caltrain DTX, second Transbay tube, and more controversially I would put a Van Ness-Potrero-Oakdale subway as a higher priority), but hopefully we can get it into the subway master plan and build it for the next generation at least.

        1. Big transit development requires a development component. Any line into the Richmond / Sunset would only be realistic in the event of major upzoning. There needs to be a development play to anchor any major transit development. Otherwise you can’t make the numbers work. Property and sales tax revenue doesn’t come from nowhere.

          1. Agreed! This is why I’m cautiously optimistic about density in the Richmond actually. Supervisor Fewer sounded like a pro-sprawl NIMBY at times during her campaign, but she also expressed a desire for a Geary subway. I think she’ll have to accept that requires an upzoning, too.

            Once you get down into the Sunset along 19th, you have a Supervisor who already supports upzoning transit corridors, Katy Tang.

    2. The m-line will take too long and cost too much, and Parkmerced’s 80 million donation is pennies on the costs to extend the M-Line to daly city bart…

      More likely to get the L-Taraval to extend up Sloat and/or go south along lakeshore blvd… otherwise prepare for GRIDLOCK!!!!

  3. My guess??It will probably be Costco or the like altho that too will go the way of Macy’s in 10 years. All that product will be delivered and the notion of like-cattle mass shopping will be old gen and dead.

    1. Given that automation and A.I. and consolidation and off-shoring will eliminate many if not most “middle class” jobs, who do our Owners anticipate will be buying the drone-delivered retail cornucopia? With what income?

  4. I agree, density will play a big part here given the size of parking lot and potential for vertical expansion. If you compare Serramonte which is undergoing a massive expansion of big box retailers and additional parking structures, Stonestown has been driving toward key “fast fashion” anchors and food service all of which are much smaller and appeal to the nearby schools, SFSU and family demographics of the area. I believe that you may see an increased number of casual dining restaurants (BJ’s, etc.) along with the potential of moving the Trader Joe’s to a larger location, additional retail and potentially office / professional services. I doubt any residential housing will be built as there is an abundance at Park Merced.

    1. Haha you used “housing” and “abundance” in a sentence about SF. Good one!

      (We’d need almost 150,000 more homes in the city just to properly accommodate the last decade’s job growth, and that deficit is still growing. Just in case anyone out there didn’t get your joke.)

      1. Many of those jobs will disappear once venture capital realizes that the chimera of internet services and aps chasing the provision of services and convenience to the 10% cannot support the capitalization involved. Much of this stuff is fluff and froth. Who really needs an internet-enabled hair brush that monitors how you brush your hair?

        Who really clicks on internet ads? Eventually, web 2.0 will severely downsize.

        1. web 2.0 was pre-iphone/smartphone. We (or at least many of us) are in the post-web mobile IoT world now and it is still upsizzling yugely.

          1. mea culpa. Web 3.0. Web Chimera.

            My underlying skepticism remains. Especially about this Internet of Things nonsense

          2. post-web, mark, not web x.anything. Ironically, a yuge aspect of IoT is making the world more sensible, literally. BTW, is that a sensor pod in your pocket or are you just glad your phone vibrates when someone texts you?

        2. That might be a comforting thing to tell yourself if you don’t want to accept more housing. But as someone in the tech industry, I can tell you that for better or worse, this is not like the dot com boom. The biggest companies today have sound fundamentals. There will be down times, but they’ll be followed by even bigger up cycles.

          In addition, even without tech companies, a lot of the Bay Area hasn’t even produced enough housing for its own residents’ children… and other industries, like manufacturing, are quietly growing as well.

    2. I’m more optimistic. The site only borders a single-family zone on two sides, both with clearly defined boundaries, 19th Ave and Eucalyptus. With momentum behind undergrounding the M, plus the precedents of Parkmerced and Balboa Reservoir, I feel like SOME housing can get built here even if it ends up smaller scale than would be ideal. I’ll be ready to fight for a walkable neighborhood.

  5. Exciting to see what they do with this lot. These big box stores are become a thing of the past due to online shopping.

  6. IIRC, this is the only land at the Galleria not owned by the Galleria group. Given that this seems like it will be a modest redevelopment. its not like they are re-doing the Galleria.

    What is the maximum height allowed here – 3/4 stories? Its a relatively small footprint – unless Macy’s owns the corner of land at the rear where the parking lot is (Farmer’s Market site) or the corner spot where the sports/fitness facility is.

    I’d expect this will end up being replaced by a mall extension with pricey boutique shops and more restaurants. Nothing spectacular. There are rumors of Target going into the mall so that is a possibility too.

    I’ll miss Macy’s.

  7. Have you been through that Macy’s? You knew it was not going to last as the clothes were not folded and it was very cluttered. Adapt or Die.

  8. Amazon bricks and mortar store! Or divide up the space for several retailers or businesses.

    Glad to see the old Macy’s store space go.

  9. Super! Excited to see what GGP does with this. Glad I bought a bunch when they were in chapter 7 @ ~$1.00 a share.

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