Potrero Center Isn’t Pretty, But Seems to Work

Potrero Center may be one of San Francisco’s least Instagram-worthy sites. The shopping center, the architecture of which appears to have been teleported straight from a 1990s-era suburb, features seven empty storefronts, drug users sleeping off their high in corners, and, on one visit, the strong stench of urine on the Bryant Street entrance steps. Yet on a recent weekday afternoon, the gigantic, two-level parking structure was about three-quarters full. 

The center, on the site of a former Seals stadium (1931-1959), was built by San Francisco-based developer The Lalanne Group and opened its doors in 1996. In 2012, it was sold to Equity One, an owner of shopping centers across the country that, in 2016, revealed plans to redevelop it into Potrero Park, a mixed-use development including housing and a Safeway. Later that year Equity One merged with Regency Centers, another shopping center proprietor, and ultimately adopted the Regency Centers identity. 

Although Regency Centers has announced plans to redevelop dozens of malls in its portfolio – including Serramonte Center in Daly City—it’s been mum about Potrero Center’s future and didn’t respond to the View’s request for comment. 

Due to the parking structure’s design, the main shopping area sits above street level, painted in shades of peach and brown, accented by red. Some exterior walls are embellished with small, light-colored decorative medallions, distant cousins of the lavish stone carvings adorning industrial buildings in the surrounding blocks.

The center remains home to some of its original tenants, including Safeway and Ross. Mancini’s Sleepworld, a mattress seller, opened about two years ago. Except for Eyebrow Shapers, a tiny threading salon, all the occupants are part of large, usually national, chains. The mall is about 75 percent occupied by square footage. One of the larger storefronts, a former Daiso next to Safeway, is empty.

One explanation for the paucity of new leases is the occasionally dense presence of unhoused people, who gather near the shops and in the parking lot’s lower level. Luis, an employee of the center’s AAA branch for the last 18 years, described a miserable scene on the parking structure’s lower level in the morning: garbage strewn everywhere, human excrement, people using drugs. According to Luis, this situation, which began around the pandemic, has been easing somewhat in the last year.

On a recent weekday afternoon, the parking lot’s lower level was clean, without visible trash or bodily waste. Still, steps from the security office, three people sitting on the ground near a wall, backs to passerby, appeared to be using drugs. Upstairs, no one panhandled, shouted into the void or openly used drugs. But a women dozed, upright, on a bench, and a man using his walker as a stool smelled of alcohol. On the sidewalk outside the center, a man slept sprawled against the mall’s wall, limbs akimbo.

Workers reported strong sales. An Xfinity employee said his shop was “always busy.” Avery, a sales associate at Mancini’s Sleepworld, said business was up 20 percent, year-over-year. Luis, at AAA, said that University of California, San Francisco doctors and nurses are among his best customers.

Google reviewers and shop employees report that a major attraction of the center is its ample parking. It’s also served by a multitude of bus lines that stop on 16th Street, directly in front of it. There’s a bikeshare station on Byrant Street, half a block away. On a recent afternoon, a taxi idled in front of Safeway while a man loaded groceries into its trunk. 

Google reviewers also like the well-stocked and clean Safeway. The grocery store has seemingly mile-long, extra wide aisles and a traditional layout, with frozen and packaged goods surrounded by floral, butcher, dairy, bakery and deli stations. There’s a Starbucks, a pharmacy, and a Wells Fargo Bank branch. The presence of copious, unarmed, security guards, lack of self-checkout stations, often long lines to pay, and locked-up personal care items mark the store as post-pandemic and urban.

Online, Regency Centers boasts of its “placemaking” approach that focuses on creating “an environment that is a physical reflection of what makes the surrounding areas unique” and a place that’s “ideal for shopping, dining and gathering.” At Potrero Center, the built environment and retail offerings are generic. Seating that in previous years encouraged gathering has been removed. The elevated podium design isolates the center from the surrounding area.

Tesla and EVgo chargers were installed in the center’s parking lot in 2023. On a recent visit, all the EVgo and about half of the Tesla chargers were in use. One person using the EVgo chargers had left their car, perhaps to do some shopping. 

Back at the Safeway entrance, a man strummed an acoustic guitar soulfully, without any indication that he hoped to be paid. A man in a non-electric wheelchair chatted with an acquaintance. It was just another day at Potrero Center.