San Francisco is considering letting chain stores open on Van Ness Avenue between Redwood and Broadway to fill vacant storefronts. The city has long blocked chains with eleven or more locations to protect independent retailers, but supervisors now want to lower those barriers and attract any business over empty storefronts.
The retail landscape of San Francisco's Van Ness Avenue might be getting a major overhaul. Legislation has been introduced to allow formula retail on a 1-mile stretch of Van Ness Avenue between Redwood and Broadway. Formula retail is any chain with 11 or more stores, and because San Francisco traditionally favors mom-and-pop stores over chain retail because it wanna preserve the old character and charm of the city, it used to make formula retail go through a bunch of extra hoops, spend a lot more money and time to get approvals to open in that area. But given the state of retail vacancies in the area, supervisors are working to break down those barriers and bring more businesses back. I think it makes perfect sense for that stretch of NS to have retailers like this, and I'd certainly rather have something there than nothing. So I think it's a good step. Let me know what you think in the comments and follow me for more Bay Area real estate.
