Uniqlo returning to downtown SF with new flagship store

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Uniqlo will be returning to downtown San Francisco after closing its previous Union Square location. According to San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, the Japanese retailer will be opening a new flagship location in the former Old Navy store site at 801 Market Street.

The location has been vacant since Old Navy closed its doors in the summer of 2023 in the midst of a raft of store closures in Union Square and the surrounding retail district.

Mayor Lurie called the return of the retailer to downtown “another sign SF is on the rise.”

According to a report in Fast Company, the SF store opening is part of a broader expansion of the brand’s U.S. footprint that will see Uniqlo open 11 new stores across seven cities next year. The store’s new location will be roughly two blocks from its former location at 111 Powell Street.

That location, when it opened in 2012, was Uniqlo’s first West Coast store.