Old Navy to Close Flagship Store in SF’s South of Market

Downtown San Francisco has sustained another retail hit with the pending closure of an Old Navy flagship.

San Francisco-based Gap, parent company of Old Navy, plans to close Old Navy’s 72,400-square-foot store at 801 Market Street, in South of Market, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The store will go dark July 1.

A Gap spokesperson said it’s looking into opening an Old Navy somewhere else in Downtown.

“Since our Market Street store opened in the 1990s, the way we leverage flagship locations has changed,” the company representative told the Business Times in an email. “We are already working to identify new locations in Downtown San Francisco that will better serve the needs of the business and our customers.”

The move will end Old Navy’s 24-year run at the corner of Market and Fourth streets, where it opened in 1999. The owner of the 116-year old Pacific Building is Miami-based Ponte Gadea California, an affiliate company of Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara. 

In 2020, the landlord sued Gap for $1 million in unpaid rent, according to the Business Times.

The closure comes after Gap shuttered a Banana Republic last month at Westfield San Francisco Centre in South of Market. The store opened at the mall in 2009.

The company said the darkened store was part of a plan to close 30 percent of Gap and Banana Republic stores. Gap is also laying off 1,800 workers

Banana Republic is moving its flagship store from 256 Grant Avenue to a smaller store at 152 Geary Street in Downtown. Gap has closed stores on 890 Market Street, in Embarcadero Center and Stonestown Galleria. It also closed its Athleta store in Union Square.

The retail tumult at Gap follows dozens of stores that have shut their doors or will soon close in Union Square and around Powell Street, including Coco Republic, Saks Off 5th, Uniqlo, H&M and Anthropologie. The closure of a Whole Foods Market last month drew national headlines. 

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After 35 years, Nordstrom, prepares to slip away from the Westfield mall, with other stores at risk of leaving at the end of their leases. A Nordstrom Rack will soon close across the street.

The departing businesses blamed falling foot traffic in the era of empty offices and remote work, a drop in tourists, a rise in online shopping and concerns about public safety and deteriorating street conditions.

— Dana Bartholomew