Shreve & Co. closing San Francisco flagship after 170 years in The City

Shreve & Co., the venerable jeweler that has called San Francisco home since 1852, will close its location in The City’s embattled Union Square following a liquidation sale and make its Palo Alto outlet its flagship store, the company’s owner said Monday.

The store at 150 Post St., where the company has been since 2016, will cease operations at the end of a multimillion-dollar liquidation sale of jewelry and watches at discounts of up to 60% that will begin Friday and could last just days.

The decision to close the San Francisco store and move its headquarters to Palo Alto is the result of a strategic retooling of the company’s business plan, the company said in a press release, referencing “dynamic changes” in the jewelry industry.

“As we turn the page on this exciting new chapter, we are filled with gratitude for our journey in San Francisco,” said Managing Partner Lane Schiffman.

The impending departure of a San Francisco institution was another blow for the Union Square area, which recently posted a record-high retail-vacancy rate for the first quarter as The City also hit a new retail-vacancy peak, according to a report from real-estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.

It follows news from February that Macy’s plans to close its giant Union Square store at an unspecified date as part of a reorganization that would shutter 150 “underproductive” locations through 2026.

Shreve has occupied its 15,000-square-foot space at 150 Post St. since 2016. The seven-story, 117,435-square-foot office building with ground-floor retail, which was built in 1908, is owned by a partnership located in the offices of Urban Land Development. Another ground-floor space in the building is vacant and available for lease, according to window signs.

George Shreve and his nephew Samuel Shreve founded the new Shreve Jewelry Company at the corner of Clay and Montgomery Streets during California’s formative days. The company developed a reputation for exceptional silver and goldsmithing.

In 1906, the company moved to an 11-story building at Post and Grant that, though badly battered, was one of The City’s few standing structures after the great earthquake and fire struck that year.

Legend has it the store’s inventory was found unscathed in a new fireproof vault when it finally cooled enough to be opened three weeks later.

In 2015, amid a local tech boom that sent rents catapulting skyward and vacancy rates plummeting, it was widely reported that Shreve would leave its historic space after failing to secure an acceptable lease.

Harry Winston took the spot, while Shreve & Co. took space just down the street. That same year, Shreve shut down its store in downtown Portland, Ore., which had been in operation since 2011.

Shreve’s departure from its Post Street location might run counter to the narrative that luxury retailers are relatively thriving near Union Square while retailers of commodity goods have comparatively suffered.

The store is close to the intersection of Post Street and Grant Avenue, a luxury hub where Bulgari recently signed a lease for corner space, to which it plans to relocate from larger space in a building directly on Union Square.

In addition to Harry Winston, Shreve’s neighbors include grand names such as Cartier, Dior, Fendi and Hermès.

The Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee held a hearing Monday on the future of Union Square at which supervisors said they wanted city officials, particularly the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, to develop clearer plans for revitalizIng the area given changing retail dynamics.

Ali McEvoy, a partner at Maven Commercial Retail who specializes in leasing properties in Union Square, insisted that Union Square is on the upswing despite Shreve’s announcement.

McEvoy said the streets around Union Square are cleaner and safer as a result of efforts by The City, which has a mobile police station parked on the square, and the Union Square Alliance, the local business-improvement district that manages cleaning crews and programs attractions and activities.

“I just need people to understand that things are on an upward trajectory on a fundamental level,” she said.

McEvoy said a well-known day spa operator will be opening an outlet in 4,000 square feet of currently vacant ground floor space in the same building that Shreve occupies.

There are national retailers that pulled back from the San Francisco market after COVID-19 hit that are currently touring properties with a goal of reopening stores in The City, McEvoy said.

One major attraction for prospective tenants is much lower rents, particularly for locations just a block from Union Square, McEvoy said.

“There are incredible deals to be made,” she said.

Other positive signs McEvoy cited included the fact that the townhouse that houses the British luxury designer Burberry at 225 Post St. is in contract for sale, as well as the anticipated opening of three luxury watch shops near the corner of Stockton and Post streets at the edge of Union Square, and a planned move by clothier St. John from Market Street to 245 Post St.

Jeremy Blatteis, director of Blatteis Realty Co., which is representing a vacant commercial space across the street from Shreve, said the Shreve announcement was “devastating” for The City, but he, too, expressed optimism that Union Square is “bouncing back.”

“There are deals getting signed. Tenants are looking,” Blatteis said.

Like McEvoy, Blatteis said rents have come down dramatically, citing the property he represents at 155 Post St, where he believed a previous tenant was paying about $20 per square foot and the landlord is currently asking for $5 per square foot.

“It’s a generational moment for tenants to take advantage of while the rents are so low,” Blatteis said.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.