Gump family sells 117-year Union Square stake for $19.2M

After nearly 120 years, one of San Francisco’s historic families has parted with its piece of the Union Square retail district.

The red awnings hanging off the three-story, renaissance-style palazzo will still bear their name, but as of last month the Gump lineage no longer lays claim to the retail building at 250 Post St. The family sold its 60.4 percent stake in the property to a local jeweler for $19.2 million, in a deal that closed on May 14, according to property records.

The purchase is the latest lift for the city’s retail core, which has endured a frustrating post-pandemic stretch of exits, vacancies and distress.

The Gump family, then-owners of Gump’s, the high-end home decor and furnishing retail shop that still operates today, bought the 32,400 square-foot property in 1908 as San Francisco was rebuilding from the earthquake and fires that destroyed much of the city. The family sold the retail business decades ago, but held on to the real estate, whose prominent facade stands in the heart of the Union Square district.

The property now moves from one long-time shopping district retailer to another. The buyer, Victor Wu, owns J. Stella, an upscale jewelry store in operation since 1958, located only one block east on Post Street.

The remaining 39.6 percent stake in 250 Post was granted to local civic endowments supporting the ballet, symphony and art museums in the 1990s and 2010s, according to property records.

The majority interest in the property hit the market last summer. Maven Commercial brokered the deal in partnership with Beckett Capital. Dominic Morbidelli, an agent with Maven, said they received “at least four” offers on the majority stake for 250 Post.

“The big thing here is that we see someone buying a fractional interest in a property in Union Square,” Morbidelli said, which reminded him of how Union Square real estate traded during its pre-pandemic heyday. “You’d do whatever you could to get in.”

The property was ultimately a trophy asset for Wu, who made the best offer, Morbidelli said.

Wu did not return The Real Deal’s phone calls, but one source said Wu had a nostalgic connection to the property: his mother worked in the jewelry department of Gump’s.

The Union Square district has followed an undulating path after the pandemic sent the vacancy rate as high as 22 percent. The submarket has received its share of jolts this year, from pop-ups during the Super Bowl week to the return of AT&T and the opening of The RealReal. Yet, the most substantial boost came when Presidio Bay Ventures announced it was partnering with the Prado Group to purchase the long-defunct and bankrupt San Francisco Centre Mall for an undisclosed price.

Then, earlier this week, news broke that a $40 million makeover of Powell Street — one of Union Square’s central corridors — was moving forward thanks to private funding from some of the area’s bigger names in real estate, such as the owners of the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, Parc 55 and Stratford hotels. The San Francisco Standard, the local news outlet owned by billionaire Michael Moritz, also announced it would be relocating from its home just outside the Design District to Union Square.

The property at 250 Post still houses Gump’s, which was bought out of bankruptcy by Utah-based banker John Chachas in 2018, along with Zara, which signed a short extension earlier this year to remain in the building while it finishes building out its three-floor, 40,000 square-foot store down the street at the corner of Powell and Post.