With San Francisco’s downtown shopping district at a crucial juncture in its struggle to recover from the one of the worst slumps in recent memory, Colliers is beefing up its retail real estate team.
The firm hired broker Laci Jackson Ravina as a vice president. She will work alongside colleague Julie Taylor, a veteran Union Square broker.
Jackson Ravina, a retail leasing specialist, spent the past six years at Los Angeles-based investment firm CIM Group, where she oversaw the leasing strategy for a 3-million square foot portfolio of urban, mixed-use, neighborhood retail and high-street assets.
She said in a statement that it's invigorating "to return to the brokerage side of the business after several years working for an institutional owner." Jackson Ravina highlighted her complementary “background in repositioning, redevelopment and a national network of retailer and broker relationships."
Taylor, meanwhile, has worked with landlords and tenants in the city’s iconic Union Square district since 1989.
She is “one of the city's most respected high-street retail brokers,” said Colliers in the release that noted that Taylor had leased over 1 million square feet of space in downtown San Francisco and developed a reputation for “creative deal-making” and “strong retailer relationships” among traditional and luxury urban retailers and property owners alike.
Retail resurgence underway
Colliers said the “strategic partnership” between Jackson Ravina and Taylor reinforces the company’s “commitment to driving the retail resurgence in San Francisco.”
“We’re not just leasing space—we’re reimagining street retail on San Francisco’s most important pedestrian corridors,” said Taylor, an executive vice president, in a statement.
Union Square has hemorrhaged stores in recent years as a potent array of forces from e-commerce to crime concerns and the pandemic forced out businesses, from local T-shirt sellers to national department store chains. Vacancy rates in Union Square remain stuck at roughly 22%, according to CoStar data, making it one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in San Francisco. That's up from 9% in 2019 and more than five times the nationwide vacancy rate of just over 4%.
In recent months, however, Taylor and other retail brokers trumpeted Union Square’s recovery as the several big names signed leases, including Zara, Shoe Palace, Nintendo and luxury menswear brand John Varvatos.
“I personally have offers on five different buildings, and we are touring almost daily,” Taylor told CoStar News in March.
As a reminder the city’s nascent retail recovery is not yet a done deal, San Francisco suffered a blow this week with the news that one of its longtime luxury department store tenants, Saks Fifth Avenue, is closing its doors on May 10.
The chain attributed the closure to the evolution of its business after acquiring Neiman Marcus late last year. But downtown San Francisco has suffered the loss of several big department stores, including Nordstrom in 2023 and more recently Bloomingdale’s from nearby Market Street. Macy’s said more than a year ago that it planned to close its Union Square store, but it did not give a date, and the store currently remains open.
Jackson Ravina has 17 years of experience across major U.S. markets, according to Colliers. She has worked on redevelopment efforts in markets including Los Angeles, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Las Vegas and the Bay Area.