GOLDEN STATE OF MIND: Fans shown at the Thrive City Plaza outside Chase Center ahead of a 2022 NBA Finals game between the Warriors and Celtics. (The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
In its nearly five years since opening, Chase Center has served as the catalyst toward revitalizing San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood, hosted multiple NBA championship runs and staged concerts.
More than 40 years in the making in downtown San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors privately financed the arena in one of the most expensive cities in the U.S.
Coming online in September of 2019 and weathering the pandemic shutdown, the arena’s surrounding Thrive City mixed-use development is the only aspect that didn’t quite come online at full scale.
That’s about to change as the Warriors prepare for hosting the 2025 NBA All-Star Game next February, with three restaurants opening soon on the 11 acres surrounding Chase Center.
“When all is said and done, we’ll have 20 to 25 restaurants and shops,” said Warriors President and Chief Operating Officer Brandon Schneider, noting that Thrive City also features retail, with the team store housed in separate building from the arena and ample office space. “We’ve got 580,000 square feet of office space, and Uber has their world headquarters here in Thrive City.”
Although the Warriors were eliminated from the 2024 playoffs following a play-in game loss to the Sacramento Kings, Thrive City restaurants are opening this year are Che Fico Pizzeria (spring), Southeast Asian street food-style Kayah by Burma Love (summer) and Señor Sisig, a Filipino fusion concept (early 2025).
“It’s getting there,” Schneider said. “We have Miller & Lux, which is a restaurant we own, and we’re also going to own and operate a huge sports bar, at about 20,000 square feet,” Schneider said, although more information on that has not been made public. “That will be the last thing to open, but everything will be open in time for the NBA All Star Game in ‘25.”
Other projects coming online in time for the All Star festivities include a six-acre public park tied to the arena’s existing outdoor plaza with the only outdoor video board in San Francisco County, according to Schneider.
“We’re able to have programming in our plaza virtually every day, whether that’s showing other sporting events, health and wellness programming with our partner Kaiser Permanente, and we have the largest Christmas tree in San Francisco,” Schneider adds. “We do a Hanukkah and Kwanzaa celebration, New Year’s Eve movie nights. There’s always something to do, even on non-event days.”
Programming this year include a live music lunch series, trivia nights, weekly fitness classes, music class, men’s college basketball viewings, and a veterans wellness event.
It all adds up to a shining example of the modern mixed-use development, privately funded and in a major city not known for having a lot of available land for major development.
“Our project is 100% privately financed; the arena itself was $1.6 billion and the overall development is $2.1 billion,” said Schneider, whose time with the Warriors began in 2002 as a season ticket account executive when the team played in Oakland. He was named president and COO in 2021 after serving as chief revenue officer.
“That level of commitment was unprecedented as the first in our league in that range. We wanted the experience to be great for everybody. We are really proud as we approach the five-year anniversary. We’re always going to work to get better, but I feel like we’ve accomplished that goal.”
