Bayfair Mall Sold
Bayfair Center, the largest shopping mall in San Leandro, has been sold and the new owners have not yet made plans for its future, according to Adam Goldenberg of B3 Investors, the new owners.
owever, Target, which owns the land for its store and parking lot, was not part of the sale and will be unaffected.
ajor stores that could be impacted include Macy’s, Kohl’s, Old Navy, and Bed Bath & Beyond. So could 24 Hour Fitness and the Century Movie 16 theaters, both set off a bit from the main mall. First opened to the public in 1957, the 48-acre site includes 802,000 square feet of retail space.
an Leandro Community Development Director Tom Liao said that the new owners have not told the city of their plans, but he has emphasized that any redevelopment will have to follow the rules in the city’s Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) plan for the Bayfair area.
“We’re trying to get higher-density mixed uses,” Liao said. He said what’s acceptable includes much commercial, office, and research and development (R&D) use, along with higher-density housing and retail.
hat it does not include is heavy manufacturing, Liao stressed.
edeveloping or part or all of the mall into a life sciences center was raised as a possibility by an online real estate newsletter that spoke to the broker who arranged the sale. Liao said he had no information on this, while Goldenberg said planning had not progressed far enough to say.
iao thought it unlikely that all retail other than Target would vanish from the redone mall. Ideally, he said, the city would like to see retail on the ground floor and housing on the upper floors in both the Bayfair and downtown TODs.
ut, said Liao, the amount of retailing needed there and elsewhere might continue to evolve as we recover more fully from the pandemic and online shopping stays popular.
“For a while, everybody thought retail stores were on their way out everywhere. But lately, they’ve been making something of a comeback, especially for food and beverages,” Liao said.