Whether it’s due to anti-corporatism, parking fears or simply taste, big-box retailers are not welcomed with open arms in San Francisco. In fact, neighbors commonly band together to shout them down and drum them out.
And then there’s Target, which might have found just the right formula to blend in: a tighter, more urban-friendly store with clothes and basic groceries, but no lawn furniture.
The Minneapolis-based chain with 1,700 nationwide locations is set to move into The City for the first time. The store will occupy the second floor of the troubled Metreon building at Fourth and Mission streets.
The company went through a mostly trouble-free permitting process with city agencies and the public.
The Westfield Group, which owns the building, is set to begin work on the first-floor entryway within the next few months, and Target is planning for second-floor construction to begin in the fall, the retail chain’s spokeswoman Donna Egan said.
The downtown San Francisco store is set to be the first of many city locations for Target. Similar stores are already under way in Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago.
Egan said San Francisco has not resisted Target like it has other chains such as Home Depot and Starbucks because the company has products The City wants.
“[San Franciscans] appreciate high quality,” Egan said. “They’re hip, and they’re more design-focused.”
But the lack of opposition might also be because this particular Target is downtown, and the company hasn’t fully gone through the process of locating in a San Francisco neighborhood.
The real test of whether Target is “one of the good ones,” that is, one of the corporations San Franciscans will widely accept, is whether it can get through the whole process at a proposed store at Geary Boulevard and Masonic Avenue. It has begun the permitting process for the store, which would be located at the site of a former Mervyns.
The proposed location is on the border between The City’s District 2 and arguably more anti-chain District 5. During meetings with neighbors last summer, most of the feedback was positive, according to some who attended.
“I think there is a possibility that it can be done right, but in District 5, people like to be participative,” said Thea Selby, president of the Lower Haight Merchant and Neighborhood Association. “People really want their local stuff.”
Others said the economy badly needs any business, chain or local.
“We need Target, we need stores, we need businesses,” said David Heller, president of the Greater Geary Boulevard Merchants and Property Owners Association. “The neighborhood is dying.”
The Metreon Target is expected to create upwards of 250 jobs, according to Egan, and the Westfield Group said the building reconstruction will create 1,300 “new construction and permanent jobs.”
Big-box resistance
2005: A decade-long fight about Home Depot ended with city supervisors narrowly approving the store, only to have the chain back out in a bad economy.
2007 and 2008: Starbucks was successfully kept out of the Richmond district after significant citizen protest.
2009: Planning Commission denies permits for Pet Food Express and American Apparel.
2011: Supervisor Eric Mar introduces legislation to outlaw chain pet stores on Geary Boulevard between 14th and 28th avenues after Petco filed a permit to open in the Richmond district.
