What to do with a wildly successful indoor shopping center in Downtown San Francisco? If you’re Starwood Capital Group, put The Metreon up for sale.
The Miami Beach-based investor led by Barry Sternlicht has listed the 312,000-square-foot indoor mall at 135 4th Street, the San Francisco Standard reported. It’s 92 percent leased.
The asking price was not disclosed. JLL holds the listing.
The four-story mall, across the street from the half-empty San Francisco Centre, is home to the city’s only Target and AMC IMAX theater, the largest in the nation. It sits next to and atop the Moscone Convention Center.
Starwood Capital acquired the mall in 2012 as part of a portfolio of eight buildings for $1.15 billion. The seller was Westfield Group, which owned the San Francisco Centre for decades before ceding control of the mall to lenders last year.
The retail center was opened in 1999 by Sony, which envisioned an interactive theme park with arcades, toy stores and a playground meant to resemble illustrations from Maurice Sendak’s book “Where the Wild Things Are.” Westfield, which bought it seven years later, turned it into a traditional mall.
The Metreon’s anchors, Target and the 16-screen AMC, rake in 60 percent of the property’s income, according to the Standard. Other tenants include restaurants and beverage shops, including Super Duper Burger, Lemonade and Chipotle, with lease terms averaging eight years.
Nick the Greek and Heytea just signed leases at the mall, and leases by West Coast Sourdough and East Brother Beer Company may be in the works, according to JLL.
Workers at the Metreon’s Target recently reported that the store has been plagued by theft, leading to merchandise being locked behind plastic barriers, according to the Standard.
Starwood Capital Group, co-founded in 1991 by Sternlicht and Bob Faith, has $115 billion in assets under management in 30 countries, according to its website.
Last month, Starwood and Artisan Ventures surrendered a 1.6 million-square-foot office complex in El Segundo to lenders after falling behind on nearly $500 million in debt.
In March, Starwood also surrendered three office towers in Oakland after defaulting on loans for $365 million.
— Dana Bartholomew
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