How Can San Francisco Fill Up Empty Offices and Stores?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Once bustling San Francisco neighborhoods such as Union Square and the Financial District have been plagued with high retail and office vacancy rates since the pandemic started five years ago. More than a third of all the office space in San Francisco is now vacant and hybrid schedules mean that even buildings that do have tenants don’t fill up with workers each day. Union Square has also lost its luster as a shopping destination with most of its department stores shuttering. San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, says he has plans to revive downtown. We talk about what it would take to refill and reuse commercial spaces, and bring people back to downtown. Guests: Robert Sammons, senior research director, Cushman & Wakefield Lauran Waxmann, reporter, San Francisco Chronicle Katie Buchanan, principal, design director and managing director of the San Francisco office, Gensler Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho LaPuerta, a health resort with 85 years of wellness experience,
0:05.9	providing summer vacations centered on well-being. Special rates on three-and-four-night- August
0:11.1	vacations include sunrise hikes, water classes, yoga, and spa therapies, all set in a backdrop of a dreamy summer sky.
0:19.6	A six-acre organic garden provides fresh fruits and
0:22.7	vegetables daily. Learn more at Ranchoer Tuerta.com. Support for forum comes from Broadway
0:28.3	S.F, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story. From three-time Tony-winning
0:35.1	composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:40.3	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:46.0	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion.
1:01.8	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.1	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:08.7	From KQED.
1:20.5	Music From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:24.0	We've talked about it before, and we're going to talk about it again.
1:27.3	The collapse of the
1:28.3	commercial real estate market in San Francisco during the pandemic was unexpected and unprecedented.
1:34.8	We've now had years to try to understand what happened. And we have a more realistic estimate
1:41.8	of how long it might be before foot traffic recovers in the downtown area.
1:47.0	So what now? There's a new mayor, more data, and different ideas kicking around.
1:52.1	Will Daniel Lurie make a difference?
1:54.2	When will we say downtown is so back?
1:57.1	It's all coming up, after this news.
	...

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