Contemporary Jewish Museum to Sell Its Downtown SF Building

Today, San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum announced it will put its downtown San Francisco building up for sale. In a press release, the museum stated it would “identify a buyer complementary to the Yerba Buena neighborhood cultural district.”

The museum, once an active fixture of that neighborhood, has been closed to the public for 15 months. In November 2024, citing financial difficulties, the 42-year-old nonprofit announced it would close its doors for at least a year, halting exhibitions early and laying off at least 19 staff members.

Today’s news is not altogether a surprise. The CJM operated at a deficit for years leading up to its December 2024 closure. In the museum’s most-recent available tax filings, ending June 2024, expenses outpaced revenue by over $5.9 million.

“Our revenue and expenses have been out of balance for some time,” CJM Executive Director Kerry King told KQED in 2024. “And like many institutions, we’ve found one-off ways to solve for that. But that doesn’t really solve the underlying balance situation.”

The CJM’s 63,000-square-foot building on Jessie Square, designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 2008, was a significant — and seemingly insurmountable — part of that equation. It was expensive to maintain, and to keep exhibitions secure and climate controlled. In 2024, a bank-held construction-related loan accounted for $1.5 million of the CJM’s annual expenses.

Since the CJM’s temporary closure, the Bay Area arts and culture scene has watched galleries, museums and other arts institutions struggle. Most recently, in January, California College of the Arts, Northern California’s last nonprofit art and design school, announced it would permanently close at the end of the 2026–27 school year. Just weeks later, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts suddenly collapsed under financial distress.

The neighborhood directly around the CJM has had its own struggles. Nearby San Francisco Centre, formerly known as the Westfield mall, fully closed in January 2026. City College will close its campus at Fourth and Mission Streets this summer. The Mexican Museum, which was supposed to move in next door to the CJM, missed a key fundraising deadline last summer. That space remains empty.

Today’s announcement stated that the CJM is “engaged in curatorial planning,” including hiring for a curatorial position, collaborating on exhibitions and programming with other institutions, and planning for forums at which audience and supporters can provide feedback on the museum’s future.

There was no mention of a future brick-and-mortar site or a reopening date.