Gap to open Banana Republic, Old Navy, Athleta in Embarcadero HQ

The Gap is opening four stores at its Embarcadero headquarters, two years after it closed three locations across the city.

It’s planning to add a Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta and Old Navy store to its offices at 2 Folsom Street this spring, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The company, which owns the 545,000-square-foot building at the corner of Folsom Street and the Embarcadero, is converting almost 18,000 square feet of the first floor’s general office space to retail, according to an application filed with the San Francisco Planning Department.

The area doesn’t have many clothing or goods stores, since most are geared toward providing food and similar services to the residential and office populations.

The company said as the pandemic spread in 2020 that it would shutter three key Gap stores. It shut its flagship at 890 Market Street, as well as one in the Embarcadero Center and another in the Stonestown Galleria.

Retail landlord Simon Property Group sued Gap that same year for “taking opportunistic advantage” of the pandemic to avoid paying $107 million in rent. In a filing reported by Bloomberg, Simon said Gap wasn’t paying rent for some of the stores that reopened after shutdown orders expired.

In August in New York, a judge ordered the Gap and Old Navy to pay millions of dollars in back rent at its 60,000-square-foot Times Square store, rejecting claims that Covid closures meant the retailers were no longer bound by the lease. State Supreme Court Judge Debra James told the apparel giant to release a $5.8 million bond to the landlord, a family business managed by Charles Moss III.

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[SFBT] — Victoria Pruitt