Target is abandoning a planned store in downtown San Diego.

The retailer had signed a 15-year lease to move into the new Radian apartment complex in the East Village, and the store was expected to open next year. Jason Wood, director of developer Cisterra, said Target informed them of its decision to pull out on Friday, without giving them many reasons.

Target agreed to honor its lease and pay a seven-figure annual fee, Wood said, and has already returned $600,000 to Cisterra for construction. The San Diego Sun was first to report the news Thursday morning.

Target spokesperson Jim Joice did not elaborate on why they decided to pull out.

“We have systematically evaluated our current plans,” it said in a statement, “and have made the decision not to move forward with a store in this location. “We continue to operate 27 stores in San Diego.”

The Radian is located in the East Village at 675 9th Avenue and was developed by Cisterra. The crown jewel of the project was going to be the 36,000 square foot Target on the ground floor. The building’s median rent is $4,732 per month and it is the most expensive apartment building downtown.

Although the building is in the East Village, it is not in an area that is traditionally a shelter for San Diego’s homeless. It’s just a few blocks from Petco Park and a short walk to the Gaslamp Quarter.

Wood said Target signed the lease in 2021, when the area was arguably less pleasant than it is today, with several new buildings under construction. In his conversations with Target, he said the decisions were not “sales driven,” and so he could only speculate whether they had anything to do with additional security costs or with the increase in the minimum wage.

He said he insisted to Target that the area was increasingly urbanized with apartment buildings and was a good location. Wood said Target did not dispute that the store had good sales potential, but that the deal no longer made financial sense, without further details.

The Minneapolis-based retailer made waves last week when it announced it would close nine stores in four states because it said retail theft and organized crime threaten the safety of its employees and customers .

At the time, it only had stores in San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Portland and Seattle. San Diego was not on the initial list.

Target’s decision to pull out of the project is not an indictment of the surrounding neighborhood, said Marco Li Mandri, executive director of the nonprofit East Village.

“Things are getting a lot better in the East Village,” he said. “The homeless problem is finally solved. The problem of street vending has finally been resolved. Are the (improvements) happening as quickly as we would like? No, but at least there are measures and orders to give (the police) the means to deal with this situation.

In its statement regarding other store closures, Target said it takes the decision to close stores very seriously.

“In this case, we cannot continue to operate these stores because theft and organized retail crime threaten the safety of our team and customers,” the statement said, “and contribute to the unsustainable performance of the company”. “We know our stores play an important role in their communities, but we can only succeed if the working and shopping environment is safe for everyone. »

Unlike the other stores, the one in downtown San Diego hadn’t opened, so there was no data on stolen merchandise that he could draw on to make his decision. Target still has 27 stores throughout San Diego County, and no closures have been announced for any of them. However, none are downtown and the closest is in South Park.

“Paying the base lease term is truly unprecedented in American retail, as many department stores simply return the keys to the bank, the mall or the landlord,” said Burt Flickinger, a food expert. and retail and managing director of Strategic Resource Group. “This indicates a very good relationship between Target and Cisterra, as well as between the city and the county.”

He said shoplifting, primarily in New York and California, has turned solidly profitable stores into losers.

“Target cannot afford the significant losses from theft,” Flickinger said, “now that theft has increased from hundreds of millions (of dollars) to approximately $1 billion this calendar year.”

Wood said it’s possible Target could change its mind. Considering they’re paying for an open store near busy Petco Park, where many concerts are held and which broke attendance records during the Padres’ last season, Wood said they would just have to enter space whenever they want.

He said they would rather have someone cover the rent than have an empty storefront on the first floor of their building.

Li Mandri, who specializes in revitalizing business districts, is confident that Cisterra will find a new tenant to occupy the empty space facing Tenth Avenue.

“It’s a great place,” he said. “It’s a 21st century building. It is in the heart of a high residential density. “I think there are probably other groups, whether it’s a grocery store or some other type of larger store, that would look at (the building) as an opportunity.”