In October 2022, Australian furniture and lifestyle retailer Coco Republic opened its flagship San Francisco location at 55 Stockton St. in Union Square after completing a multi-million dollar renovation.
Seven months later, a Coco Republic spokesperson told SFGATE that its flagship San Francisco location is set to close in the next few months, citing a well-known reason: lack of customer traffic, which the company partially attributed to unsafe conditions — or at least perception of people regarding unsafe conditions – in the environment.
“(It) has become clear that downtown San Francisco is no longer a viable option for Coco Republic’s flagship store,” the rep wrote in an email, adding, “It was a tough decision not to.” was taken lightly.” The recent closures of Whole Foods, Nordstrom, Saks Off 5th, and Anthropologie show that our problem at Union Square is not an isolated issue, and we hope the city will be able to address the issues that are affecting it make it so difficult to do business there.”
An interior shot of the Coco Republic store at 55 Stockton St. in Union Square in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Coco Republic
The property at 55 Stockton St. previously housed a Crate & Barrel, which closed in March 2022 after its lease expired, a Crate & Barrel spokesman told SFGATE at the time. Coco Republic renovated the 53,000-square-foot space and officially opened in October.
However, the retailer is already planning to end its Union Square project. The spokesman confirmed that employees were informed of the impending closure on Wednesday afternoon. Instead of shipping its wares to other locations, Coco Republic plans to conduct a sale of its Union Square inventory over the next few months and then close in mid-summer, likely in late July.
An interior shot of the Coco Republic store at 55 Stockton St. in Union Square in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Coco RepublicThe specific reasons for store closures in Union Square and downtown San Francisco have become a hot-button issue marked by much political controversy. In early April, following the closure of Market Street Whole Foods, District Superintendent Matt Dorsey — a close ally of the San Francisco Police Department — announced that he was working on a bylaw amendment to maintain a minimum number of police officers in the city.
And when Nordstrom announced the closure of its long-standing Westfield San Francisco Center location in early May, a Westfield spokesman issued a scathing statement, blaming the turnover of the city’s retailers on “unsafe conditions.”
However, that statement did not appear to be a complete account of the factors that could lead to closures at the mall. A few days later, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the stricken restaurants in Westfield; In one instance, Westfield had charged a local hot dog chain $28,000 a month in rent at the mall’s food court. Although the hot dog chain’s owner demanded a rent drop for months, it wasn’t until after Nordstrom’s announcement that Nordstrom was closing that Westfield finally made the hot dog chain’s owner a new lease offer: $12,500 a month, or 18%. of gross sales according to the Chronicle. (SFGATE and The Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)
In Coco Republic’s case, a spokesperson cited a University of Toronto study showing that San Francisco has experienced the worst economic recovery of any major North American city, compared to pre-pandemic levels. The spokesperson confirmed to SFGATE that there had been no major crime incidents at Coco Republic’s Union Square location, which the spokesperson attributed to the company’s security services. The spokesman reiterated that the area’s reputation — that there were unresolved safety issues — has contributed to the city’s sluggish economic recovery and lack of customer traffic.
Two other Coco Republic locations remain in California: one in Culver City and a “new flagship” location in Orange County, which is slated to open later this month.
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