American Eagle, the largest remaining tenant of one of San Francisco's highest-profile mall owners, is suing its landlord over accusations that it has failed to address mounting safety and security concerns at a downtown retail center.

The apparel firm filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court this week, claiming Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, the owner of Westfield San Francisco Centre, has "let the mall deteriorate into disarray" and has left American Eagle and its employees "to suffer and respond to gun violence, physical assaults, burglaries and robberies," according to the suit.

American Eagle included more than 100 "significant security incidents" at its downtown store between May 2022 and May 2023. The retailer alleges that Unibail had the option to tackle security concerns at the Market Street mall but "ultimately decided not to make that investment," which has allowed the mall to become a "lightning rod" for criminal activity.

"American Eagle believed it was leasing prime retail space with a street entrance in downtown San Francisco from one of the most established and reputable retail landlords in the country," according to the lawsuit. Yet "this is not the store American Eagle paid millions of dollars for, or the store that Unibail promised. Unibail cannot walk away from the harm that it has caused without consequence. It must be held accountable for the damages caused by its failures and broken promises."

The retailer, one of the most well-known fashion brands in the United States with more than 1,400 locations, relocated to the roughly 12,700-square-foot, street-facing location at Westfield San Francisco Centre in early 2017 as part of a lease agreement that runs through the end of January 2028.

The lawsuit lands several months after Paris-based Unibail confirmed it had stopped making payments on its $558 million loan for the San Francisco Centre in response to dwindling foot traffic downtown and mounting concerns about criminal activity in the neighborhood. The landlord and its partner, Brookfield Properties, have begun transferring control of the mall at 845-865 Market St., meaning the owners will ultimately surrender the prominent retail property to its lenders.

Westfield Corp., the Unibail subsidiary that controls the mall, declined to comment on the lawsuit. American Eagle did not immediately respond to CoStar News' requests for comment.

While Westfield San Francisco Centre has struggled to regain momentum lost to the pandemic, its challenges have compounded in recent months as some of its largest tenants have decided to close their long-standing spaces permanently.

Nordstrom, for example, earlier this summer decided not to renew its long-standing lease at the mall, where it has operated its 312,000-square-foot, multilevel flagship since the 1980s, according to CoStar data. The location closed last month, pushing the mall's vacancy rate down to about 55% occupancy, well below the 93% average across the rest of Westfield's national retail portfolio.

What's more, Nordstrom's departure isn't the end. Century Theater permanently closed its 52,000-square-foot location in June, and H&M has yet to renew its deal for about 25,300 square feet, which runs only through January 2024.

Westfield has owned or operated the 1.25 million-square-foot mall for over two decades, and a company spokesperson recently told CoStar News it has been "investing significantly over that time in the vitality of the property."

The mall’s commercial mortgage-backed securities loan has multiple lenders — Wells Fargo services the loan while JPMorgan Chase originated it — and was set to mature in August 2026, according to CoStar data. Westfield San Francisco Centre was put on a watchlist last month due to declining occupancy and a lack of potential tenants to fill a handful of soon-to-be-vacant spaces.

Improved performance at some of the top-tier malls in its portfolio has meant Westfield's parent company is slowing its U.S. disposition and instead choosing to retain some of its top-performing properties. However, the American Eagle lawsuit shines a light on Unibail's alleged neglect of the downtown San Francisco property compared to some of its other regional assets.

Westfield has invested upward of $2 billion in upgrades and maintenance expenses for other malls it owns in the greater Bay Area, according to the lawsuit. That includes a $1.1 billion expansion and renovation of the Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara, California, where tenant sales jumped 66% last year compared with 2019, the landlord recently reported.

American Eagle alleges it is an altogether different level of commitment to the San Francisco Centre, however, and after years of failing to maintain common areas — an obligation included in the lease — the landlord has breached its agreement and has left tenants such as the apparel retailer to "clean up Westfield's mess."

"What began as a slow decline in performance has turned to full neglect, leading to what Westfield has publicly acknowledged as 'rampant criminal activity' at and around the mall," the lawsuit alleges. "For its part, Westfield accepted no responsibility for its role in allowing these issues to infect its mall. It shifted all the blame to San Francisco in public statements and through the media."

American Eagle claims Westfield told tenants to communicate issues and emergencies through texts or phone calls but has responded to less than 50% of the retailer's attempts. Instead, American Eagle tried to take matters into its own hands, according to the suit, hiring additional security officers and nearly doubling its security budget for 2022.

"Despite its efforts, American Eagle has not been able to overcome the mall's conditions," according to the lawsuit. "Westfield’s failure to maintain the common areas at the mall has poisoned public opinion ... patrons no longer feel safe because of Westfield’s inaction, and American Eagle is bearing the brunt of Westfield’s abandonment of its obligations."