Macy’s to close 212K sf store in San Leandro mall

Macy’s will shut a 67-year-old department store at the Bayfair Center mall in San Leandro.

The New York-based department store will close the 212,000-square-foot store at 15555 East 14th Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing an internal memo first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The closure is among five Macy’s stores to be shuttered in a cost-cutting move from coast to coast. A state employment report said 66 employees will lose their jobs in San Leandro this March. A clearance sale will begin this month for eight to 12 weeks.

“At Macy’s, we continue to reposition our store fleet to better meet the needs of our customers in each of our markets,” a store representative told the Business Times in an email. “After careful consideration, we have decided to close our Macy’s Bayfair Center store.”

Bayfair Center, which opened in 1957, was among the first shopping malls in the Bay Area. The Macy’s, designed by John Savage Bolles, who had designed Candlestick Park and other local Macy’s stores, was the first store in the mall to open.

Besides its store in San Leandro, Macy’s plans to close stores in Simi Valley, in Southern California; Virginia, Hawaii and Florida. In 2018, Macy’s closed its Stonestown Galleria and standalone Union Square Men’s Store in San Francisco.

Macy’s decision comes as its President Tony Spring is slated to succeed CEO Jeff Gennette in February. The firm is also pressured by activist investors who’ve launched a $5.8 billion buyout bid for the chain, Macy’s operates some 600 stores, owning about half of them.

In 2022, Austin-based B3 Commercial Management and Hong Kong-based GAW Capital Partners bought the 816,800-square-foot Bayfair Center for $57 million, or $70 per square foot, according to The Real Deal.

At the time, the mall’s occupancy was 91 percent, including tenants such as Macy’s, Target, Century Theaters, 24-Hour Fitness and PetSmart.

B3 is now looking to redevelop the 42-acre mall into a mixed-use life sciences campus next to a BART station.

In 2019, San Leandro hatched a plan to build up to 2,500 homes and 300,000 square feet of offices in a transit-oriented village around the mall, according to the Business Times.

— Dana Bartholomew

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