Westfield Mall in San Francisco Sued by Tenant Over Crime

One of the remaining tenants at Westfield Centre—the Union Square mall that went into receivership in June—is suing the mall’s owners, claiming they failed to address more than 100 “significant security incidents” at its store in the mall between May 2022 and May 2023.

According to AE Retail West, parent company of fashion brand American Eagle, the incidents included threats of violence against store employees—including situations involving customers threatening employees with firearms and, in one case, a machete.

The lawsuit alleges that the mall’s operator considered options to address the unsafe conditions, but “ultimately decided not to make that investment.”

The 1.2M SF Westfield Centre, the largest mall in San Francisco, is jointly owned by Paris-based Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Brookfield Properties. In June, URW disclosed that the mall, located at 856 Market Street, is going back to its lenders after the owner stopped making payments on a $558M loan.

A month earlier, when Nordstrom announced its plans to vacate a 300K SF store that anchored the Westfield Centre, which is 55% occupied, URW issued a statement citing unsafe conditions in the downtown area.

“The closure of Nordstrom underscores the deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco. A growing number of retailers and businesses are leaving the are due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers, and employees, coupled with the fact that these significant issues are preventing an economic recovery of the area,” URW’s statement said.

AE Retail West’s lawsuit claims the mall owners were part of the problem: it says they allowed a “slow decline in performance” to turn into “full neglect” that allowed the mall to become a “lightning rod” for criminal activity, according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“On multiple occasions, patrons have brandished firearms while verbally assaulting the store’s employees. American Eagle employees have suffered multiple physical attacks and assaults. In one instance. A patron even threatened American Eagle Staff with a machete,” the complaint states.

The lawsuit accuses Westfield of closing its management office at the mall, “leaving American Eagle on its own to deal with Westfield’s unmonitored common areas and their problems.”

The complaint says that mall tenants were told to use texts and phone calls to communicate emergencies, but it alleges that Westfield responded to less than 50% of the calls and texts.

“Westfield is declining to comment because we have not been served in the lawsuit,” Westfield told GlobeSt., in a statement.

American Eagle, which has a lease on the Westfield Centre store that runs through 2028, maintains it did everything it could on its own to improve safety conditions at its store.

The measures taken by the fashion outlet included doubling its security budget this year to hire additional security guards, permanently closing its street-front entrance on Market Street, upgrading its CCTV system and installing security window film.

Sales at the Westfield dropped to $298M last year from a pre-pandemic level of $455M in 2019, while foot traffic has declined by 43% in the same period.

Mayor London Breed has proposed replacing the Westfield Centre with a soccer stadium.