American Eagle sues San Francisco mall operator, alleging ‘full neglect’

The clothing retailer accused Westfield, owner of San Francisco Centre, of allowing the mall to ‘deteriorate into disarray’

By Aaron Gregg
Updated September 14, 2023 at 2:18 p.m. EDT | Published September 14, 2023 at 10:56 a.m. EDT



Mannequins are unused at Nordstrom on Aug. 26 in Westfield San Francisco Centre after Nordstrom announced it will close its store there. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

American Eagle is suing the owner of a prominent downtown San Francisco shopping center for allegedly failing to address safety and security concerns, claiming that it has “let the mall deteriorate into disarray.”

The clothing retailer says Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a commercial real estate firm, neglected the mall, including by failing to invest in security. A complaint filed Monday in the Superior Court of California for San Francisco County accuses the company of “allowing the mall to become a lightning rod for, in Westfield’s words, ‘rampant criminal activity.’”

“American Eagle believed it was leasing a prime real retail space with a street-front entrance in Downtown San Francisco from one of the most established and reputable retail landlords in the country,” the complaint reads.

But the neglect of Westfield San Francisco Centre left “American Eagle and its employees to suffer and respond to gun violence, physical assaults, burglaries, and robberies,” it adds. “This is not the store American Eagle paid millions of dollars for, or the store that Westfield promised.”

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By Aaron Gregg
Aaron Gregg is a business reporter for the Washington Post. Twitter https://twitter.com/Post_AG