San Francisco is set to welcome a business that residents have been waiting on for nearly six years, and city officials have finally confirmed the date. Mayor Daniel Lurie announced the news publicly, calling it a long-overdue win for the city’s downtown corridor.
The new location will open its doors on July 31 at 934 Market Street, just steps away from the Powell Street BART station. The spot has sat empty for years while the project made its way through a lengthy approval process, one that city leaders now admit took far too long.
According to the Mayor’s office, the delay stretched back to 2020, when the project first entered the pipeline. Since then, it faced repeated setbacks, including extended permitting reviews, historic preservation checks, and noise compliance requirements. Each of these had to be cleared before the business could move forward, and together they pushed the timeline out by years.
In response, the Mayor pointed to a newer city initiative, PermitSF, which is designed to speed up approvals and reduce the red tape that small and mid-sized businesses often run into. Officials say the goal is to prevent future projects from facing the same multi-year holdup.
This marks the first time in over a decade that this particular business will have a presence in San Francisco, after its last location in the city shut down back in 2011. Its return is expected to bring fresh energy to a stretch of Market Street that has struggled with vacancies in recent years.
City leaders say they view the opening as part of a broader push to revive downtown foot traffic and restore confidence in the area. For residents who have waited years for this moment, the countdown is finally almost over.
