IKEA may very well be coming to SF as sister firm buys troubled 6×6 mall

The vacant purchasing heart at 945 Market St. that has not as soon as seen a buyer in nearly 5 years has a brand new proprietor.

Ingka Centres, the mall proprietor division of IKEA’s mother or father firm, has bought the mid-Market constructing, as first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Since its opening within the fall of 2016, the 250,000-square-foot retail advanced has confronted seemingly unending obstacles, together with a declining retail sector and its typically unsavory location close to Sixth St.

It’s solely ever earned income from its 167-space parking storage.

After two years of floundering makes an attempt at filling the retail vacancies, proprietor Cypress Equities was permitted by town to transform 47,522 sq. toes of retail house into workplaces in 2018. That didn’t work both, and so they later bought the event to Alexandria Actual Property Equities and TMG Companions for $179 million.

This buy is stunning amid a pandemic that’s been highlighted by a struggling retail and a tech sector that appears to have given in to everlasting distant work prospects.

Ingka Centres operates 45 malls in Europe, Russia and China, every with IKEA as a major attraction. The shops additionally provide leisure and restaurant companies to buyers, and the corporate advised Reuters earlier this 12 months they plan to spend $7.9 billion in enlargement within the coming years.

SFGATE reached out to Ingka Centres for remark and didn’t hear again as of publication. We’ll replace the story if we do.

Tessa McLean is a digital editor with SFGATE. E-mail her at tes[email protected] or comply with her on Twitter @mcleantessa.