San Francisco’s empty downtown mall has a new suitor, and it wants to fill part of the building with computing hardware. The timing is rough. The city has paused new data center approvals, and a school district still holds a long-term lease on land under the mall.
Development consultants KG Growth Partners confirmed they worked with an unnamed technology company to bid for all of San Francisco Centre, including the former Bloomingdale’s at 845 Market Street. CEO Jared Krieger rejects the data center label and calls the concept a “regenerative urban energy center.” The sellers have not picked a winning bid, and no permit application or completed sale has been reported.
A Citywide Pause Comes First
Supervisor Shamann Walton introduced an urgency ordinance in September proposing a 45-day interim zoning moratorium on new data centers, pointing out that the city’s data center codes were written in 2001. Supervisors approved it unanimously on October 6, and Mayor Daniel Lurie signed the measure on October 16. Planners are now studying energy, water and neighborhood effects, and state law allows the moratorium to be extended.
KG had earlier asked the city’s Department of Building Inspection (DBI) about using the space for a data center, and that inquiry may count for more than the branding. Planning staff are meeting with Walton this week to discuss reworking the category the city uses for these facilities. Nobody at City Hall has said yet whether a building that is two-thirds public space would fall inside it.
Energy and Water Claims Still Need Numbers
Krieger says roughly one-third of the site would house the technology operation. The remainder would go to retail, culture, sports, wellness, design and free education, with six acres of green space on the roof. He also says the operation would aim to generate more energy than it consumes. No energy balance, utility agreement or cooling design has been made public to back that goal.
Nationally, data centers consumed about 4.4% of U.S. electricity in 2023, and a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) study for the Department of Energy (DOE) projects 6.7% to 12% by 2028. States are already pushing large loads to cover their own grid costs, as seen in new cost and reliability rules in California and Texas. A credible submission here would state peak demand, upgrade costs and who pays for them. It would also count cooling water separately from rooftop irrigation, since discharge permitting can reshape cooling design late in a project.
The Land Beneath the Mall
The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) owns a 75,675-square-foot lot under the building, leased to the mall operator through 2043. When Prado Group and Presidio Bay Ventures dropped their purchase in July, one source tied the collapse in part to failed efforts to renegotiate that lease.
The Mid-Market Business Association has already said what it would want in return, including a public ground floor with shops and food, local hiring and support for neighboring cultural groups. Massachusetts goes further and now ties large data center permits to community benefits agreements. The next markers here are the Planning Department’s progress hearing in November and the sellers’ choice of buyer.
