6x6 was supposed to be a flashy shopping destination. Instead, it?s a death knell for S.F. development. There it sits and pouts, a gleaming glass-and-steel behemoth, its double-helix escalator visible from the sidewalk. Squeezed between two smaller buildings, it?s an awkward building. And empty. Always empty. Chronically empty. It?s been that way since 2016, when construction of the 250,000-square-foot retail complex was completed.
The $150 million project was supposed to be the prized bookend of Mid-Market, a skinny slip of a neighborhood that stretches from Fifth Street to Van Ness between Mission and Market Streets, with the Twitter building ? the much-publicized tech neighbor meant to kickstart a revitalization ? as the centerpiece. Far from the tech-fueled money tree that developers hoped it would be, 6x6 has come to represent something of a canary in the coal mine for S.F real estate. Although its centrally located and adorned with some of San Francisco?s most stunning architecture, Mid-Market has, for years, been the butt of jokes. Within greater S.F., it is thought of as a kind of skid row ? a rock-bottom spot where people suffering from addiction or mental health problems crash-land. In 1985, San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen crudely christened Mid-Market ?Le Grand Pissoir? due to the large quantities of urine and human feces found in the area. Three decades later, despite the presence of two tech giants (Uber?s headquarters is also in the neighbor...