San Francisco fills vacant storefronts with new business

San Francisco’s “Vacant to Vibrant” economic development program is filling large vacant spaces around Union Square with smaller pop-up shops and offering them a year to operate rent free.

Taylor Jay, an Oakland-based fashion brand, is slated to open its doors in Union Square on Saturday.

“I’m so excited,” Jay said.

Jay’s new store, on the corner of O’Farrell and Powell streets, is the first of up to six pop-up stores coming to the area over the next few months.

“Union Square, the Powell Street corridor in particular has a ton of vacancies on it, but there’s also a lot of foot traffic,” SF New Deal Executive Director Simon Bertrang said.

SF New Deal brought 17 pop-ups to fill empty parts of downtown San Francisco, offering them small grants, technical support and three months of free retail space with the possibility to stay longer.

Taylor Jay is the program’s entry into Union Square, where the vacant retail space is bigger and the stay is longer – one to two years.

Jay had to close her second Oakland store last summer due to low foot traffic and break-ins at both of her locations within the same month.

“Once those break-ins happened and we closed our second store, I definitely was entertaining other locations, other areas,” Jay said.

Union Square is no stranger to retail thefts either. In fact, retail crime is part of the reason why other retailers left in the first place.

“We have a lot of investment in Union Square specifically and a strong focus on safety in Union Square, and I think our retailers are feeling it,” said Laurel Arvanitidis, director of business development in the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

“Vacant to Vibrant” plans to bring 25 more pop-ups to Union Square and downtown on a rolling basis over the next two years.