A discount grocer will take over a vacant North Beach storefront formerly occupied by Safeway, city officials announced Thursday.
Grocery Outlet has signed a 15-year lease agreement to open a store at the Northpoint Centre at 350 Bay St., marking the company’s sixth location in San Francisco.
Grocery Outlet CEO Eric Lindberg said he expects the store will open sometime in early 2026, subject to the city approving their plans, which he expects will be filed within the next month and a half.
“We’re really excited,” Lindberg said in an interview. “It should be a big draw to the area.”
Grocery Outlet will fill a 30,000-square-foot vacancy created when Safeway closed in 2023, leaving one of the city’s most dense neighborhoods without a major grocery store. The bargain grocer had been working to lease the former Safeway since April 2023.
Lindberg said the company plans to hire more than 50 employees for the new location and will hire from within the neighboring community. The store will offer discounted fresh produce, grocery items, and everyday essentials.
While there is a Trader Joe’s nearby at 401 Bay St., Lindberg said the planned Grocery Outlet will offer a wider variety of goods at lower prices, including brand-name items Trader Joe’s doesn’t carry.
“It’ll be a big draw for people,” Lindberg said.
Although the lease covers all 30,000 square feet of the former Safeway, the shopping area will occupy “about 65%” of space, according to the company’s vice president of real estate, Bill Coyle, who negotiated the lease. The remainder will be used for back-of-house functions and storage.
“We made the deal, we’re excited, we’re gonna get in there as soon as we can and build a beautiful store,” Coyle said.
The agreement includes an option to extend the lease by an additional 15 years, as well as commitments by the property owner, Anchor Pacific Capital, to add security cameras and make improvements to the shopping center’s parking lot. The Grocery Outlet location plans to offer validated parking, Coyle said.
Anton Qiu, managing partner of Anchor Pacific Capital, which purchased the shopping center for $25.76 million in late 2023, called the agreement “a big win for the residents and employees in the area” in a Thursday press release.
The lease agreement comes after Supervisor Danny Sauter, who represents the area, gathered nearly 900 signatures on a petition to bring an affordable grocery option to the area. Sauter said it’s important to have a major grocery store in North Beach and he expects people from surrounding neighborhoods, including Chinatown, will come to the new Grocery Outlet.
“There’s not another major grocery store without a 40-minute bus ride,” Sauter told The Standard. “It’s a big morale boost.”