Empty storefronts are becoming more and more common throughout the Bay Area as more people shop online.

But should you be filling the vacancies with offices instead of retail and entertainment businesses?

A San Francisco supervisor says no. 

Like most shopping districts in San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area, the retail landscape in Union Square is dotted with empty businesses and “for lease” signs.

Filling those vacancies is a top priority.

“We need to fill our storefronts with active tenants,” Union Square Business Improvement District Executive Director Karin Flood said. “If not, you lose that vibrancy and you invite in other social issues that we have seen throughout the city.”

The question is what should go in those vacant spaces.

“I’m introducing legislation that would protect the lower floors in the Union Square area from office space encroachment,” San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin said.

At Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting, Supervisor Aaron Peskin proposed the first three floors in the Union Square area remain retail and off-limits to office space.

“We feel pretty strongly that the ground floor should be retail,” Peskin said. “It best activates the street level.”

The Union Square Business Improvement District agrees the first floor should remain for businesses that are open to the public.

But the district believes a healthy mix of mixed retail, hotel, restaurant, and office space will keep the area dynamic and restricting office space on floors 2 and 3 may not be what’s best.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON: 

>>MORE STORIES