The Metreon during the day
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Location | San Francisco, California, United States |
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Coordinates | 37°47′04″N 122°24′12″W / 37.784374°N 122.403424°WCoordinates: 37°47′04″N 122°24′12″W / 37.784374°N 122.403424°W |
Address | 135 Fourth Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 |
Management | Westfield Group |
Owner | Starwood Capital Group |
Website | http://shoppingmetreon.com |
The Metreon is a shopping center located in downtown San Francisco at the corner of 4th Street and Mission Street. It is a four-story 350,000 square foot (33,000 m²) building built over the corner of the underground Moscone Center convention center. Metreon opened on June 16, 1999, as the first of a proposed chain of Sony "urban entertainment centers", aggregating dining, gaming, music, exhibitions, shopping, and movies. Sony intended the ambitious 85 million dollar project to be not only a theme park and gallery for Sony products but also a way to reinforce a sophisticated image for the Sony brand.
In 2006 Metreon was sold to Westfield, a mall developer, and it was refashioned as a food-oriented mall. In 2011, with few exceptions, remaining businesses in the mall were closed. Westfield began a major renovation with an emphasis on dining, including Target Corporation creating a large downtown department store that now takes up the second floor. In April, 2012, the Westfield sold the Metreon to Starwood Capital Group. Westfield currently continues to be responsible for management.
The Metreon's original attractions included a movie theater including both standard and IMAX screens, a multimedia edutainment presentation involving audio-animatronics and 3-D film based on the famous book The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, a play area for young children based on Maurice Sendak's popular children's book Where the Wild Things Are (sharing a floor with an In the Night Kitchen themed restaurant), and an arcade and bar, the Airtight Garage, based on French comic artist and graphic designer Jean "Moebius" Giraud's graphic novel of the same name and featuring all original games.