Labubu lovers, rejoice: A new location of a wildly popular Chinese toy store is coming to Union Square.
Pop Mart is slated to open at 200 Powell St., a green Art Deco building at the corner of O’Farrell, two sources familiar with the plans told The Standard. While the timeline for the store’s opening is unclear, preparations have begun: Permits filed Wednesday mention the addition of retail display tables and shelves, as well as a cashier counter.
The opening will be a welcome sign of life on Powell Street, which has struggled for years to fill more than a dozen empty retail spaces along the popular tourist corridor. Pop Mart will replace the former Skechers store, which decamped from 200 Powell St. in 2019 for a smaller space closer to Market Street.
The lease marks a quick turnaround for Ian Jacobs, the real estate heir who purchased the building for $7.4 million in May. His team has embarked on a buying spree in the area as part of an effort to snap up SF real estate at steep discounts, dubbed Project Uris.
In the last few months, entities affiliated with Jacobs have purchased two other buildings in Union Square: 111 Ellis St. for $7.8 million, according to property records, and 35-41 Powell St. for $7.5 million, according to the SF Business Times.
Jacobs’ team declined to comment.
Pop Mart’s debut in Union Square will delight the children, teenagers, and fashion-conscious adults obsessed with Labubus and other collectibles. When the chain opened its first San Francisco location last summer in Stonestown Galleria, giddy shoppers lined up in the wee hours to get their hands on a blind box, which conceals a collectible until it’s opened.
The new tenant plays into several intersecting trends in the real estate market, including the rise of experiential retail and the revival of long-languishing storefronts with new brands from Asia.
The gamified shopping experience has buyers shelling out hundreds of dollars in the hopes of scoring a particularly rare or coveted toy. It’s paying off for Pop Mart: Last year, the publicly traded company had approximately $1.8 billion in global sales, up a remarkable 107% since 2023. Pop Mart did not respond to a request for comment.
The Asian retailer will also strike a nice complement to Powell Street’s new Nintendo store, which opened in May and regularly has long lines of shoppers. While the corridor’s continuing vacancies are glaring, Pop Mart’s arrival adds to a recent spate of retail momentum.
Other recent additions to the corridor include sneaker haven Shoe Palace and local fashion brand Nooworks, which opened in late May as part of the city’s Vacant to Vibrant program. Zara is slated to open a four-floor flagship store at 400 Post St., and luxury menswear shop John Varvatos and photography store Camera West should debut in the coming months.