{"id":28245,"date":"2023-09-03T12:32:43","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T19:32:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28245"},"modified":"2023-09-03T12:32:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T19:32:44","slug":"mayor-breed-has-big-plans-for-a-downtown-soccer-stadium-the-new-ikea-shows-big-plans-rarely-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/03\/mayor-breed-has-big-plans-for-a-downtown-soccer-stadium-the-new-ikea-shows-big-plans-rarely-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Breed has big plans for a downtown soccer stadium. The new IKEA shows big plans rarely work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>John King<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep. 1, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The
The new IKEA on Market Street in San Francisco was several years in the making, and provides some proof that big plans in the city\u2019s downtown don\u2019t always work as expected.Gabrielle Lurie\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Before you get too excited about watching soccer games where Westfield mall now stands<\/a> \u2014 an idea percolating at City Hall \u2014 I suggest you visit the new IKEA that\u2019s a half-block away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week after it opened,<\/a> shoppers still fawn over cleverly named kitchen gadgets and scented candles. You\u2019ll wait in line for Swedish meatballs with lingonberry jam. But the housewares emporium is the lone tenant in a 250,000-square-foot building that was hailed as Mid-Market\u2019s salvation when it was approved in 2010 \u2014 and sat totally empty from its 2016 completion until last month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moral of the story? Big plans in big cities often fall short of expectations. What sounds dramatic can be a dead end, or at best a modest success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not writing off the trial balloon being floated<\/a> by Mayor London Breed with regards to San Francisco Centre, the beleaguered bastion of bourgeois retail that Nordstrom abandoned last week and that former owner-developer Westfield has handed off to its lenders<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People from the mayor on down have been spitballing ideas all summer about the mall\u2019s future, and Breed upped the ante last week when describing how City Hall is working with the architecture firm Gensler on conceptual ideas about replacing the 1.5 million square foot structure with an arena that could double as a concert venue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hope to be able to share that information with the public fairly soon and potentially get the ball rolling,\u201d Breed told a crowd at the Chamber of Commerce. If nothing else, she pointed out, such a complex would be a great way \u201cto diversify what happens in the downtown area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this sounds vague \u2026 it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco wants to find a spot where a permanent home for women\u2019s soccer can be built. A troubled mall and a downtown that could use a boost \u2014 voila! What could be simpler than swapping the former for the latter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer: Just about anything. There\u2019s no owner right now, just lenders trying to figure out what to do with a great location and a lot of empty space. Nor is the mall closed, despite all the what-if talk. You can still walk past Burberry and Boss on your way to Bloomingdale\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if someone bought the site, and <\/em>determined there was value in starting from scratch, and <\/em>nailed down all necessary approvals, we\u2019re talking about something that might <\/em>be ready a decade from now. By then, San Francisco will either have disappeared down the doom loop, or be booming yet again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s the thing with big plans. They offer easy answers, but that\u2019s not how cities work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us back to IKEA.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the project was approved in 2010 \u2014 replacing three small, old buildings with a five-story glass box \u2014 developers and boosters touted it as what the chamber called \u201cone of the best hopes in decades to revitalize Mid-Market.\u201d The box would be filled with mass-market tenants attracting customers eager to patronize a part of town known for \u201cstreet-level enterprise of a different sort,\u201d<\/a> to quote a Chronicle article from when the plan first surfaced.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"SF<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

SFNext<\/a> is Chronicle coverage devoted to the city\u2019s most vexing problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To become involved:<\/strong> Send feedback, ideas and suggestions to sfnext@SFChronicle.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time construction began in 2014<\/a>, CityPlace had become Market Street Place. New developers were talking about cool bowling alleys and cool movie lofts and maybe a food emporium a la New York\u2019s Chelsea Market. As for smaller tenants, no problem: \u201cThe Hayes Valley and Valencia crowd want to be in Mid-Market,\u201d one retail broker told the press, presumably with a straight face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, construction complete,<\/a> the glass box still lacked tenants (\u201cWe\u2019re pretty picky,\u201d explained the developer). But! There was yet another name \u2014 6×6 \u2014 because \u201cwe have something that is cool and exciting and appeals to younger people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More for you<\/p>\n\n\n\n