A majority interest in a building that has housed one of San Francisco’s oldest and most storied department stores is for sale.
The more than century-old Renaissance palazzo–style building at 250 Post St. dates from 1908, when a member of the family that started Gump’s purchased half a block to rebuild following the earthquake and fires that had destroyed most of the city two years before. The home furnishings retailer, founded in 1861, was known for the giant bronze-colored Buddha statue and its slogan, “where good taste costs no more.”
Real estate firms Beckett Capital and Maven Commercial announced they are handling the proposed sale of a 60.41% interest in the property on behalf of a trust representing members of the Gump family. The property is 32,364 square feet across three levels just off the city’s central shopping district of Union Square, and is still occupied by Gump's and retailer Zara.
“The Gump’s building, as it’s become known over the years, sits in a core Union Square location, anchoring one of San Francisco’s most well-known luxury retail corridors,” said Maven partner Dominic Morbidell in a statement. “We are already getting expressions of interest, which is indicative of the resurgence of Union Square in recent months.”
Union Square has hemorrhaged stores in recent years, from locally based T-shirt sellers to national department store chains, as global forces such as e-commerce fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic combined with local concerns about crime and disorder. The city’s premier retail district was among the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the hardest-hit city in the country following the pandemic, with a vacancy rate that soared from 9% in 2019 to about 22% by early 2025, more than five times the nationwide rate of just over 4%.
But a handful of openings in recent months have ignited a feeling that Union Square — and perhaps downtown San Francisco — is turning a corner. The neighborhood vacancy rate has dipped in the past few months to 15.6%. Business owners and upbeat local brokers have enthusiastically credited the city’s business-friendly mayor, Daniel Lurie — who was elected last year running on the slogan “San Francisco is open for business” — for what they see as an imminent comeback for the city’s commercial center.
Ownership history
Zara's announcement earlier this year that it would move out of 250 Post St. into another building downtown served as a sign for both the changing times and the optimism taking hold; while it will close its store at the Gump's building after its lease expires early next year, it inked a long-term lease at 400 Post St. spanning 40,000 square feet, nearly double the size of the current store.
Gump’s was founded in 1861 as a frame and mirror shop, but over the years, generations of the Gump family turned it into a store with an elite clientele and an elegant and eclectic selection of wares ranging from crystal vases and hand-carved mahogany furniture to carved note cards.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt reportedly shopped for smoking jackets there. Generations of San Franciscans looked forward to the adoptable puppies and kittens frolicking in Gump’s store windows during the holidays, a tradition that passed to Macy’s in 2003.
The business relocated in 1995 to a renovated space down the block at 135 Post St., where it remained until 2018, when the store filed for bankruptcy protection and closed. The Chronicle called it “the last pillar of old San Francisco falling.”
In 2019, the Chachas family of New York acquired the brand and reopened the store at the original 250 Post Street location. In 2023, store owner John Chacas paid to publish a full-page open letter in the Chronicle decrying city leaders for what he called the “unlivable” state of downtown San Francisco due to homelessness and public drug use and said the store was in danger of closing, though it currently remains open.
In 2012, public records show that the Gump family members transferred a 60.41% stake in the property into a testamentary trust. Small percentages of the property were gifted to arts organizations including the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Symphony and the Asian Art Museum.