How one Bay Area mall went from 35% vacant to bustling

On a recent date night with my partner, we feasted on elevated chicken biryani and foam-topped craft cocktails in a romantic, chandelier-lit space. But we weren’t, as you might expect, at some hip spot nestled in a trendy San Francisco neighborhood. 

Pippal, an elegant Indian restaurant from the Michelin-recognized Rooh team, is just one of a flock of new eateries to recently open at Bay Street. It’s a complete 180 from two years ago, when the mall was nearly 35% vacant after at least 15 businesses closed during the pandemic.

In 2021, Southern California-based development firm CenterCal Properties purchased Bay Street for an estimated $95 million, and has since poured an additional $75 million into reinvigorating the mall, according to CenterCal vice president of development Scott Bohrer. Old tenants California Pizza Kitchen, P.F. Chang’s and Pizza My Heart quietly exited, making room for a lineup of buzzy new restaurants: SF Mexican spot Flores, Marin’s Uchiwa Ramen, Humphry Slocombe, Philz Coffee and more. 

Pippal co-owner Anu Bhambri said she and her team had been in conversation with CenterCal for the past two years but weren’t convinced to open at Bay Street until they saw the extent of the mall’s transformation. 

“All of the restaurants from before are gone and they’re trying to bring in some more trendy restaurants, so that’s when we found it very interesting,” she said. “Especially when we saw their terrace area, which is done very nicely, we started to have that conversation again.”

The centerpiece of the new Bay Street is the Bay Break Dining Terrace, the upstairs shared dining area. Some vantage points offer bay views, which diners can enjoy from an array of cozy seating, complete with fire pits and lawn games. Eventually, Bay Street plans to start hosting live music in the space, too.

“Rather than making it a food court with tenants having their own dining spaces, we wanted to make it a real community of food operators,” Bohrer said. “… We really don’t want people to think of us as a mall. We want them to think of us as just a destination that they’d go to.”

Bay Street is certainly not the first Bay Area mall to rebrand as a foodie destination to combat the decline of mall culture. Over the past few years, Westfield’s Stonestown Galleria has transformed into a culinary paradise with the addition of popular international Asian restaurant chains Marugame Udon, Gram Cafe, Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea and Kura Revolving Sushi Bar.

Over in Santa Clara, the Westfield Valley Fair mall’s recent restaurant additions include popular food hall Eataly, iChina, Mastro’s Steakhouse, Bamboo Sushi and Din Tai Fung. Diners waited hours in line when Baekjeong, LA’s hottest Korean barbecue chain, unveiled its Westfield location back in August. Since these openings, the mall’s foot traffic is at an “all-time record high,” a senior general manager told SiliconValley.com.

At Bay Street, Bohrer said they focused on bringing in regional favorites like Oakland beer garden and pizzeria Arthur Mac’s to appeal to their foodie-inclined demographic, along with a few national chains like Shake Shack and Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chão for guaranteed traffic. 

“We’re very aware that we are a mile and a half from the Gourmet Ghetto, which has produced more Michelin chefs than any other neighborhood in the world,” Bohrer said. “We’ve got shoppers from Berkeley, North Oakland and Piedmont who are highly educated, care about where their food comes from and care about the story behind all these restaurants.”

On a recent Monday afternoon, I dropped by Bay Street to see the transformation with my own eyes. I started my food crawl at Flores, the Michelin Bib Gourmand-rated Mexican restaurant that hails from SF’s Marina District. The new location is designed to feel “light and airy” like a “resort in Mexico,” said Adriano Paganini, founder and CEO of Back of the House, the restaurant group behind Flores, Delarosa, El Techo and more.

“I thought it was a good location based on the density and the population and the age of the population that is there,” Paganini said, comparing the young professionals living in Emeryville to the customer base at Flores’ Marina location. “And also it’s kind of in the middle of everything. It’s like a node where a lot of other different areas converge.”

I was seated on the patio and ordered three tacos, my favorite of which was the grilled adobo pescado, filled with smoky, tender fish and cabbage. Sitting on the sunny patio beneath a tropical umbrella, a margarita was tempting (during the 3 to 5 p.m. weekday happy hour, they’re only $8). But I saved drinking for my second destination.

A few paces away, Arthur Mac’s Little Snack, with its counter service and collection of retro arcade games, is a decidedly more casual affair. I ordered the veggie pizza slice of the day, a tikka masala-inspired pizza called the Golden State Curry ($5.50), and a blackberry cider. 

I headed back out onto the shared dining terrace, enjoying sips of my fruity beer and bites of the crispy, warmly spiced slice in the sunshine. The mall wasn’t as busy as a weekend evening when moviegoers flock to the mall’s AMC theater, but it showed more life on a Monday afternoon than I expected. A few couples snuggled up on the couches around the fire pit; solo visitors on their lunch breaks hunched over Shake Shack burgers.

To offset an encroaching food coma, I stopped by Philz Coffee for a jolt of caffeine. The popular local chain has only been open a few weeks, but it was already swamped with mobile orders. 

After finally obtaining my tried-and-true favorite, the mint mojito iced coffee, I was literally stopped in my tracks by the sweet smell emanating from across the street. It was coming from Dipped, a new dessert shop specializing in chocolate-covered strawberries and other treats. I ordered a pumpkin cheesecake bite, which was the perfect decadent dessert to pair with my coffee. 

If I hadn’t been alone, I might have continued my mall day with a round of mini golf at Tipsy Putt. Tipsy Putt is a mini golf course, yes, but it’s also a bar, complete with 40 beers on tap as well as cocktails and bar food like nachos and tacos. The nine-hole course is compact but fun, and the beer selection is great — I’ve already been with friends a few times since it opened in February. 

So much has already changed at Bay Street, but more is still to come. Castro Korean fusion restaurant Saucy Asian, wine and spirits shop Copper & Malt and Bay Area chain Mumu Hot Pot are all expected to open in the next few months. Later in 2024, the mall’s biggest new addition is slated to open: a still-unnamed grocery store. 

Slowly but surely, the transformation is starting to pay off. According to research from McNew Consulting performed in May 2023, year-over-year traffic at Bay Street has increased by 12%, and visitation from daytime workers within a mile of the mall has increased by 64% year-over-year. Bay Street expects to be 95% leased by the end of the year, Bohrer said. 

On a less scientific note, the rapidly growing mall just has a vastly improved vibe. While previously my culinary adventures at Bay Street were restricted to AMC movie theater popcorn, I could now see myself spending an entire evening there eating and drinking. 

If going to the mall in 2023 means sipping a fancy gin cocktail by the fire, then call me a mall rat.