The San Francisco Retail Conference is scheduled for April 8, 2026, bringing retail landlords, restaurateurs, developers, brokers, and brand executives together for a one-day event focused on Union Square’s recovery, Bay Area leasing trends, and the changing economics of physical retail. The conference will be held in San Francisco and is built around two marquee themes: the future of Macy’s landmark Union Square flagship and the broader reshaping of retail demand, footprints, and location strategy across the region.
Bisnow’s published agenda makes clear that the event is leaning heavily on named operators and decision-makers rather than generic market commentary. The speaker and panel lineup includes Jeff Kreshek of Federal Realty Investment Trust, Nathan Lundell of Grosvenor, Adriano Paganini of Back of the House, Cherie Song of Lubin Olson, Isabel Kurzner of Barry’s, Tim Welsh of El Pollo Loco, Bill Shopoff of Shopoff Realty Investments, Marisa Rodriguez of Union Square Alliance, and Ben Kochalski of TMG Partners. Together, those names span retail real estate, restaurant operations, fitness, law, placemaking, and redevelopment.
One of the conference’s most prominent sessions is centered on Union Square and the future of Macy’s flagship property. Bisnow lists the panel as “Reimagining Union Square: The Future of Macy’s Landmark Flagship,” with discussion focused on “the best paths to transform 600K SF at the heart of Union Square.” That places Ben Kochalski, president and chief investment officer of TMG Partners, and Marisa Rodriguez, chief executive of Union Square Alliance, near the center of a conversation that has become one of San Francisco retail’s most closely watched redevelopment stories.
That subject has only grown more relevant in recent months. Local coverage in late 2025 reported that Macy’s selected TMG Partners to help shape the future of its Union Square complex, a site long viewed as one of downtown San Francisco’s most important retail anchors. More recent reporting has also pointed to new signs of retail reinvestment in Union Square, including major brand openings and relocations, even as the district continues to work through vacancies and post-pandemic turnover.
The broader conference bench suggests the event is trying to capture both landlord and tenant perspectives on that recovery. Jeff Kreshek, who was recently promoted by Federal Realty to executive vice president, western region president and chief operating officer, oversees a West Coast portfolio totaling roughly 6.5 million square feet. Nathan Lundell brings Bay Area asset management responsibilities at Grosvenor. Cherie Song, a partner at Lubin Olson, adds a legal and leasing perspective through her work advising institutional landlords, developers, investors, and retailers.
The tenant and operator side is also unusually visible in the lineup. Adriano Paganini, founder and chief executive of Back of the House, is listed as owner of 22 restaurants across the Bay Area, giving the conference a strong hospitality and street-level retail voice. Isabel Kurzner, senior director of real estate at Barry’s, adds a national brand perspective on expansion, portfolio management, and smaller-format, high-intensity experiential retail. Tim Welsh, chief development officer of El Pollo Loco, brings a restaurant growth and prototype-development lens shaped by prior roles at Crunch Fitness, QDOBA, Sweetgreen, and Walgreens.
Bill Shopoff rounds out the roster with a capital-markets and development angle. Bisnow’s speaker page identifies him as a longtime real estate investor and developer with decades of experience across acquisitions, development, debt placement, venture capital, and underwriting. That makes him one of the clearer links between retail discussion and the larger investment backdrop surrounding Bay Area commercial real estate.
The structure of the agenda reflects the issues currently facing San Francisco retail. Beyond the Macy’s session, Bisnow has programmed conversations on “Retail Resilience Across the Bay Area” and “Developing & Repositioning Retail for the Experience Economy,” with explicit focus on consumer strength, cost pressures, site selection, store design, footprints, and unit economics in a high-cost market. In other words, the event is not just about filling empty storefronts. It is about what kinds of tenants, uses, and investment models still make sense in San Francisco and the wider Bay Area.
For San Francisco, that makes the conference more than a standard commercial real estate gathering. With Kreshek, Lundell, Paganini, Song, Kurzner, Welsh, Shopoff, Rodriguez, and Kochalski all on the agenda, the event is shaping up as a concentrated look at the people helping decide what the next chapter of Bay Area retail will look like. At a moment when Union Square, restaurant corridors, and experience-driven brands are all being re-evaluated, the conference will bring many of the sector’s most visible local players into the same room.
Read our coverage of Semafor Tech: San Francisco for another look at a major Bay Area event bringing together executives, investors, and policy voices shaping the future of technology.
