Mid-Market Street businesses brace for Musk moving X out of San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO — Jen Hall has owned The Beer Hall off Polk Street in San Francisco for 11 years.

“We opened 11 years ago today. We opened in 2013 and so, yeah, we’re just trying to be a cornerstone for this neighborhood,” Hall said.

The Beer Hall is right across from X’s headquarters and, back in 2013 when the company was called Twitter, Jen says this area was the place to be.

“It was definitely the heyday. When we opened, Twitter was here, it was sort of a tech hub. There were other tech offices, residential buildings were going up and there were just a lot more people,” Hall said.

Jen says they used to partner with Twitter, providing beverage services for the building and hosting happy hours for their employees.

Things were going great, then the pandemic hit.

“The streets, it’s just not the same. People aren’t going out anymore,” Hall said.

Jen says the work-from-home mandates gutted the neighborhood and their business.

When Elon Musk bought Twitter and started moving things around Jen says that only added to the issues. Now that Musk has announced X is officially leaving the city, Jen says the worst of the impact is probably already behind them.

“He’s been pretty vocal about his disdain for San Francisco and its current state. Honestly, it’s been bad news for this neighborhood for the past four years,” Hall said.

Now Jen says she just wants to focus on the future. Her business continues to chug along and they’re hoping other businesses in the area can do the same.

“I certainly hope that people will come back. I think that small businesses are the heart of San Francisco. That’s why people want to live here and stay here,” Hall said.

Jen says it’ll certainly be sad to see what once was such an iconic building sit vacant but she’s hopeful it’ll find a new tenant and this neighborhood will find a new energy.