The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Rendering courtesy of the city of Sunnyvale

The city views this retail center as the future of downtown Sunnyvale.

City Council hashes out its plans to develop downtown

By Steve Enders

Forging ahead with its downtown specific plan, Sunnyvale's Redevelopment Agency and City Council agreed Jan. 27 to work with a developer to build up the nearly five acres of land at Mathilda and Evelyn avenues.

The agreement, which is still negotiable, is the first step the city needed to take to decide what can be done with the area, according to city spokesman David Vossbrink. The site includes the city-owned parking lots adjacent to Town and Country Village. The lots serve Town and Country, the train station and downtown Sunnyvale.

The city would like to see the lots developed into a retail center, hotel and public plaza, according to David Boesch, director of community development. Parking may move either underground or into raised structures.

During the next two months, the Mozart Group, the chosen developer, will study the cost and feasibility of the proposed uses for the site. The developer also plans to solicit opinion from the general public and business owners to determine what types of uses they'd like to see at the location.

The Mozart Group's development plans will not include Town and Country Village, although its owners announced in December that the property is for sale.

According to Town and Country spokesman Cole Bridges, the property has a potential buyer, but the sale is not finalized, nor is it in escrow. He also would not comment on who the potential buyer is.

While Mozart isn't involved with plans at Town and Country, the city has a vested interest in what happens there.

"If [the owners of Town and Country] want to rebuild, then they will have to come to the city and would have to meet the conditions of the downtown specific plan," said Dyane Matas, the city's housing and neighborhood preservation officer. In the past, area merchants have maintained that parking should be the primary focus of any redevelopment of the downtown area. During the Tuesday meeting, Boesch assured the City Council that the issue will be a main concern of the Mozart Group's study.

Boesch said potential parking solutions include working with CalTrain to provide a raised structure on the site--one that may even stretch over Evelyn Avenue to provide parking for the train station.

Such plans should be solidified within the next few months as the city and the developer study the location.

The city initially made contact with more than 40 developers and received 11 replies from companies that agreed to bid on the project. The city chose the Mozart Group because of its strong development background, according to a city report. The report also states that it was impressed with the developer because it identified parking as the first issue to be solved on the site.

The Mozart Group is based in Palo Alto and is a partnership between the Mozart Developing Company and Premier Properties. It has won awards for developments in downtown Palo Alto and has built in Sunnyvale before.

"We're pleased to be accepted by Sunnyvale," said Steve Dostart of the Mozart Group. "The city wants to build a downtown, and their long-term goal is to enhance the area."

Mozart helped with the Adobe Systems building, a 350,000-square-foot high rise which recently became an instant landmark in downtown San Jose. Since 1971, it has developed 79 buildings, about 25 percent of which are in Sunnyvale.

Mayor Jim Roberts said the city expects the site to serve as the identifiable center of activity for downtown Sunnyvale.

"The vacancy rate in the San Jose suburban area is about 1 percent right now for commercial and office, and that's the lowest in the country," he said. "The market is perfect right now for what we're talking about doing."

The project is in keeping with the downtown specific plan, approved by the council in 1993. The plan outlines an expansive redevelopment of the downtown Sunnyvale area, including the now-bustling Murphy Avenue.

In 1993, Roberts said, the city's long-term goal was to set the stage for private investment to realize the potential of downtown Sunnyvale.

"Because the regional real estate industry was very soft at the time, we were not able to move the plan forward," he said. "Since then, the Silicon Valley economy has rebounded significantly."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, February 4, 1998.
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