Suitsupply Purchases Union Square Retail Floors

Another Union Square real estate deal is the latest sign of a potential rebirth of the neighborhood.

Suitsupply bought the first two floors of retail space in the Grace Building at 166 Geary Street at a foreclosure auction for $19.6 million, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The menswear retailer has a 5,000-square-foot store in the building with a dedicated entrance one block over at 175 Maiden Lane. The retail parcel had been in receivership since 2022.

Suitsupply was already making real estate moves at the building prior to the acquisition. The Dutch fashion brand previously took on commercial mortgage-backed securities debt by buying the defaulted loan for the retail space from the mortgage trust that was given control of the building. The parcel’s previous owner, the Jackson Group, bought the 12,907-square-foot retail space in 2014 for $46 million and was facing $38.5 million worth of CMBS debt before selling it.

The retail space was appraised at $26 million in 2016, but its value fell to $17.3 million last year. Suitsupply opened its flagship there in 2016 and continues to occupy 5,000 square feet of retail space. The apparel company also previously leased separate office space in the building; both the retail and office leases were slated to expire this May, but Suitsupply opted to pivot to a path to ownership. The building’s top 14 floors of office space are tied to a separate loan and borrower than the retail parcel and acquired by a mortgage trust in June for $5.9 million.

Suitsupply isn’t the first retailer to become an owner in the Union Square area. In 2022, Chanel bought the 340 Post Street building for $63 million with plans to eventually move its San Francisco flagship there from its current home at 156 Geary Street next door to Suitsupply; Williams-Sonoma currently occupies the 340 Post building.

Suitsupply has seemingly been venturing further into real estate acquisitions. Last month, prior to its purchase of the 166 Geary space, it formed the purchasing vehicle Suit Supply Real Estate San Francisco LLC. Earlier this year, it registered another entity, Suit Supply Real Estate Manchester Limited, in the U.K.

— Chris Malone Méndez