Futuristic retail-tech space, Bespoke, opens at Westfield San Francisco Centre
San Francisco -- Westfield Corp. and Forest City Enterprises on Thursday unveiled Bespoke, a coworking, event and tech-demo space designed to foster a retail-tech community and support retail innovation at Westfield San Francisco Centre. Bespoke is designed as a space where entrepreneurs, brands and retailers can come together to research, create, collaborate, refine, showcase and debut work within the confines of the shopping center, which features more than 200 retailers and restaurants.
“A core pillar of Westfield’s strategy is to better connect the retailer and shopper through the use of digital technology and Bespoke fits perfectly into this strategy,” said Westfield’s co-CEO Steven Lowy. “We are creating a physical ecosystem for companies to create, learn and test all within the shopping center environment. We believe this initiative is a world-first for a shopping center company.”
Bespoke is made up of three unique spaces across 37,000 sq. ft. which combine to create a fully integrated system. The spaces include:
Bespoke Coworking: A curated community of retail-tech entrepreneurs and brands, Bespoke Coworking offers private offices, shared and dedicated desks, and storefront-conference rooms that seamlessly convert from a meeting space into a retail pop-up shop. The community, focused on creating “the next big thing” in tech and retail, gets exclusive access to shoppers and retailers alike.
Bespoke Events: Optimized for maximum space flexibility to create tailored experiences large and small (capacity of 30 to 1,200.), the event space includes state-of-the-art technology and premier presentation capabilities ideal for conferences, workshops, hackathons, runway shows, trade shows, consumer events and other large-scale activations or intimate events.
Bespoke Demo: An interactive space where entrepreneurs and brands can showcase and customers can discover, touch, test and play with products in a real-world environment, Bespoke Demo features fully customizable digital walls and a high-tech, high-touch environment for unique product demonstrations, beta testing and market research in one of the most heavily trafficked destinations in the city.
It also includes a rentable 3,000 sq. ft. pop-up shop where established retailers can reimagine their in-store experiences and infrastructure. It also serves as a testing ground for companies new to physical retail that want the chance to pilot new, exciting retail products and monitor their sales performance.