The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper Town Center announces new name, flashy look Local small business owners brace for rent hikes By JUSTIN BERTON Owners of the Sunnyvale Town Center announced major plans to renovate the stagnant mall, hoping to build a yellow brick road lined with high-class retail and entertainment shops that connects the center to thriving Murphy Avenue. If all goes as planned, the $60 million project will begin by March 1 and be completed in November of this year--about the same time ground is set to break for the new downtown. "This is a fast track effort," said Ken McGee, general manager of the mall. "It's been a long time coming. This is exciting and fun." The project represents the major rejuvenation effort promised by American Mall Properties, who purchased the slumping retail center in July for $26 million. Planners have named the sprawling project, the Silicon Valley Walk and Village Entertainment, or WAVE. The family entertainment venues coupled with outdoor retail shops hope to emulate the look and feel of the Universal City Walk in Southern California. A 20-screen theater complex will be built at what is now the parking structure facing Mathilda Avenue. WAVE will add 300,000 additional square feet to the mall and generate an estimated 800 jobs, said Joe Kapp, leading partner of AMP. "This mall has been sitting there for years," Kapp said. "What we are doing here, in Sunnyvale, is opening it up and taking advantage of what is already existing." City officials have worked closely with AMP to design the new project, attempting to generate a spark of retail consumerism in the sluggish downtown. According to an estimate prepared by AMP, the completed WAVE will double foot traffic at the mall and create more than $100 million in additional retail sales and other income to surrounding businesses and the city. Not surprisingly, Kapp and McGee declined to name the high-end retail stores and restaurants the WAVE project hopes to lure. Although city officials and downtown business owners welcome the ambitious project, some small business owners at the Town Center fear the new plans will push them out of the mall and out of business. For the small businesses that lease their spaces on a month-to-month basis, news came in December that rents would be increased--in some cases by as much as 100 percent. Marie Beers, who owns a corner shop on the first floor of the mall named Heavenly Scents, said she looks forward to the day the mall is thronged with shoppers, but also hopes she can afford to make it through November. Beers said her rent, which she declined to specify, was going to dramatically increase. Paying more rent during the months when construction will most likely keep shoppers away will be difficult, Beers said. "I hope I can make it," she said. "I've been here three years, and I've gained a clientele. I deserve to see this mall do well!" Kapp said he understood the concerns of the small-business owners, but was determined that WAVE could bring the proper solutions. "Anytime you go through change, it can be very difficult. The times are a- changin', and it's very important to proceed with what's going to take us forward." Ultimately, Kapp said, "It's going to be to their benefit; the foot traffic is going to double, the purchasing power is going to double." "I won't mind paying the rent," Beers said, "once the business gets here." [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 13, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.