Market Street Place Rendering

With its September start date having come and gone and still no movement on the Mid-Market site, Cypress Equities is now targeting November 12 as the date they’ll officially break ground on the 250,000-square-foot retail center known as “Market Street Place,” along Market between Fifth and Sixth Streets.

And according to the Business Times, Cypress is still searching for an anchor tenant for the project.  While JCPenny had originally signed-on to be the development’s anchor, and Nordstrom Rack was unsuccessfully chased, Cypress is now looking for the six-story development to be more “upscale.”

Speaking of which, while there isn’t any official update on the potential for an Eataly-esque gourmet food hall to occupy a floor of the Place, we’ve heard a couple of rumblings that it’s not likely to happen.

First approved for development as “CityPlace” in 2010 but then lost to foreclosure in 2011, Market Street Place will take around two years to complete, once the ground is actually broken.

25 thoughts on “Groundbreaking For “Market Street Place” Pushed Back”
    1. Wrong. What IS needed is the original concept: Shopping for the middle class including those living in the nearby Tenderloin. JC Penney or Target, 2 stores originally sought, would have been just the ticket.

      1. There is a city target just two blocks away. An enclosed mall in a prime commercial location is not the solution for improving the streetscape and making it any more inviting.

      2. A rapidly gentrifying corridor of millionaire residents doesn’t need a middle class mall. It will be vacant, or “repurposed” in 36 months after opening. Why go through the motions?

  1. Make the ground floor a late night food court (3am?) and they can put whatever they want above it and I won’t care.

    Right now it’s a giant dirt pit with a couch in the middle. I have no idea how the couch got there, but when it’s windy, the dirt gets blown around, coating everything within a couple of blocks. So I can’t wait for this to start.

  2. @Invented I don’t think a mall is innately bad, but definitely not the most forward-thinking use of space, in any regard. I’d love to see something more mixed-use for sure… office, housing, community space, etc., integrated with the retail concept.

    1. There’s an arts and design space with theater and dance club going in across the street, so we are already getting community space. I don’t think this part of market street seems like a great place to live, Market Street certainly isn’t quiet, nor should it be. A mall doesn’t need to be just stores – in many parts of the world, they combine shopping along with a number of other activities. It could be what the design district should have been, a way for small boutiques and new designers to get in front of people who would otherwise be shopping at Gucci, in a centrally located place just a couple blocks away.

      1. Agreed. I always think about what it would take to active the alleys and small streets between the thoroughfares… small ped/bike priority streets between Mission and Market, lined with small cafes, indie boutiques w/ flats above would be swell (in place of trash, empty buildings, junkies and turds).

        1. I would agree that SoMa badly neglects its alleys. Jessie and Stevenson are just terrible. There are a couple of hidden gems on Natoma in the area, but really, when you go into an alley, you really are alone. Trying to make the big streets like Folsom walk-able has always been a losing proposition. But I think some midblock cafes and boutiques could be amazing. Right now Stevenson turns into a tent city every night, and it’s been getting worse. I’d love some retail back there.

        2. Check out what’s happening in Melbourne’s lanes. Whole network of vibrant alleys. Soma’s future is here not in the wholly unwelcoming, tedious, wide car-y street network.

          1. Turning some of these one way thoroughfares into two way streets with medians and wider sidewalks could help. If you’re driving 50 mph down Folsom chances are slim you are interested in something on Folsom.

    1. Yes it does but not another high end Bristol Farms. Something for regular people without tech jobs. However, there is/was a grocery planned on the ground floor of another building a few blocks deeper into the T-Loin.

        1. Bristol farms has morphed into a prepared foods place and cut back fresh produce and groceries most likely because of the demand for this type of service versus the cook from scratch crowd.

  3. All helpful IDEAS people, but you don’t get to dictate what goes into this space. Market forces do. Accept that. So far, no retailers or food service has signed on. Developers do not want to build and have it sit empty. They have high cost construction loans and they don’t want to go bankrupt. Another case of missed opportunity for the City. Spend so much time arguing over non-issues. That is why SF is not a world class city by any stretch of the imagination. When you have below mediocrity running the city, you get below mediocrity.

    1. I’m confused. On one hand you say market forces dictate what happens but then you blame city officials for the result. The goal is to replace the [people] in office with people who want a better city for everyone. Therefore we do have the power.

  4. From the start this has been a fools idea. A Texas company seeks to get rich off S.F. boom. They never understood the history of Mid Market and resistance from serious retailers. In the end it will be a big ugly hole well into the 2040s.

  5. God knows there’s enough shopping in this area. The main purpose that can thrive here is market rate condos, which our below mediocre politicians don’t want. So let’s hobble on.

  6. It SHOULD NOT BE UPSCALE at all. What is should be is shopping for the middle class people here in San Francisco. They should maybe have like Andersen Bakery & Café, Vans, Go! Calendars, Cache, The Body Shop, Cinnabon, Fanzz, Yankee Candle, Flip Flop Shop, Wolfgang Puck Express, Disney Store, Best Buy Mobile, Buckle and so on.

    Another thing is the place should or better be warm and inviting, grand, contemporary and enjoyable in all areas IF they don’t want to fail, like the décor and style of the place. Where a new owner will have to come in to fix it up and get the empty spots going. One example would be the Metreon.

  7. This is like the Andy Kaufman post of the year. It’s impossible to separate the comedy from sincerity.

    I salute you, Clarence.

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