The Paris of the West Is Getting Dressed Again
San Francisco was once called the Paris of the West, and if you're old enough to remember what Union Square used to feel like on a Saturday afternoon, you know exactly why.
It wasn't just the stores. It was the weight of it. The idea that you were somewhere. That getting dressed and going downtown was an event, not an errand. That a city could hold luxury and weirdness in the same square block and somehow make both feel like they belonged.
Then we watched it all go quiet. Nordstrom left. Saks left. The Westfield went dark. One by one, the anchors pulled up and the national headlines wrote the obituary before the body was even cold. "San Francisco is dying." "Downtown is over." "Nobody wants to be there."
I never bought it. And apparently, neither did Nordstrom.
According to the SF Business Times, the retailer that started the exodus is now circling back. Nordstrom is reportedly eyeing the former Saks Fifth Avenue building at Powell and Post for a potential return to Union Square. The same Nordstrom whose departure from the Market Street mall in 2023 triggered the dominoes that eventually took down the entire Westfield San Francisco Centre.
And they're not alone.
Bloomingdale's is "evaluating opportunities" in San Francisco (their words, polished as expected, but they wouldn't be talking about it if they weren't serious). Barnes & Noble, which most people assumed was in permanent retreat, is apparently in expansion mode again and sniffing around Union Square for space. Their last SF location, at Fisherman's Wharf, closed in 2010.
Meanwhile, the confirmed moves are already stacking up. Chanel is opening a multi-level store in the former Williams-Sonoma space. Zara has a new flagship coming directly across the street from the old Saks. John Varvatos and Bang & Olufsen are both returning to the neighborhood. Super Duper is opening a burger spot in the middle of Union Square Park itself. And down on Market Street, Uniqlo is taking over the massive former Old Navy space.
This is not one store making a bet. This is a pattern.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the former Westfield site and what might come next... vertical neighborhoods, wellness anchors, hospitality-forward spaces that give people a reason to be downtown again. What's happening at Union Square right now is the other half of that story. The retail layer is rebuilding alongside whatever the Westfield building becomes, and together they're starting to reshape what downtown San Francisco feels like.
And here's the part that matters if you own property anywhere near this: energy is contagious. When a block goes dark, everything around it dims. But when Chanel opens across from Zara, and Nordstrom comes back to the building Saks abandoned, and a bookstore decides that San Francisco is worth betting on again... that energy doesn't stay inside the stores. It walks down the sidewalk. It fills the restaurants. It changes the way people talk about a neighborhood. And eventually, it changes what buyers are willing to pay to live nearby.
I've said it before and I'll keep saying it: San Francisco doesn't die. It just takes dramatic pauses.
The Paris of the West is getting dressed again. And honestly, it's about time.
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Yes. As of 2026, Nordstrom is in talks for the former Saks building, Chanel is opening a multi-level store, Zara has a new flagship, and Bloomingdale's, Barnes & Noble, and Uniqlo are all circling Union Square.
