Gap looks to unload 162K sf building near SF’s Embarcadero

Gap will shrink-to-fit in San Francisco by unloading a 162,000-square-foot building and further downsizing its hometown footprint.

The San Francisco-based clothing retailer is marketing the five-story building at 1 Harrison Street in Rincon Hill, either for lease or sale, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

The company bought the property in the shadow of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1999 for $45 million.

Gap declined to give details about the listing, including the name of the brokerage, to the Business Times.

The company filed a zoning verification letter with the city last month asking what the Harrison Street building could be used for, according to the newspaper.

The building now serves as headquarters for Athleta, a women’s activewear brand that makes up one of Gap’s four primary divisions. It isn’t clear how many Athleta employees are now based in San Francisco or where they might relocate.

Gap could transfer them to its newly remodeled 545,000-square-foot headquarters at 2 Folsom Street, a block away. Both buildings face the Embarcadero near the waterfront in Downtown San Francisco.

The company trimmed its real estate in the city last year by selling a 315,000-square-foot building in Mission Bay that had served as the headquarters for its Old Navy brand. It closed the $356 million sale to DivcoWest in April for the six-story building at 550 Terry A. Francois Boulevard.

The apparel retailer closed three stores in the city during the pandemic, but reopened five last year, including Gap, Banana Republic, Athleta and Old Navy stores at its corporate hub.

Two years after Gap vacated a flagship store in Union Square, it leased a three-story storefront in November for its Banana Republic brand at 152 Gary Street.

— Dana Bartholomew