Danish jewelry retailer Pandora will soon add its luster to Union Square.
The Copenhagen-based brand will soon lease a prime street corner at 345 Powell Street, within the Westin St. Francis Hotel, the San Francisco Business Times reported.
A broker from Cushman & Wakefield who represents the unidentified landlord said a lease agreement hasn’t been signed. But Pandora filed a building permit application as the lessee for a $1 million interior remodeling of the 1,300-square-foot space, city records show.
The store has been vacant since 2019, when it was briefly leased to luggage brand Moreau. Before that, it was taken by French leather bag maker Goyard, which moved to Grant Avenue.
The luxury shopping district was slammed by the pause of in-person office work and international travel during the pandemic, leading to record vacancies in 2020.
Despite renewed investment from some brands, boarded-up storefronts linger in prime spots at Union Square’s central plaza. In February, home decor and furniture retailer Crate & Barrel announced it would shutter its Union Square store.
Founded in 1982, Pandora specializes in bracelets, charms and necklaces and bills itself as “the world’s largest jewelry brand,” with nearly 7,000 points of sale worldwide.
Of its 2,600 global concept stores worldwide, 500 are in the U.S., plus another 1,000 independent dealers, according to Forbes. Its U.S. sales reached $1.1 billion last year.
It has two stores in San Francisco, including one at Westfield mall and the other at Stonestown Galleria, plus eight other stores across the Bay Area, according to its website.
Though most of Pandora’s sales are in the U.S. and Europe, China has become a target. In May, it announced plans to build a $100 million factory in Vietnam, its first outside Thailand.
– Dana Bartholomew
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