Photograph by Robert Scheer
The next time Shabab Hussain, 2 1/2 years old, comes to the Sunnyvale Town Center, the mall may have a new owner. One of the retail center's owners, Bell Atlantic, has put its half of the mall up for sale. The price tag: $34 million.
By KATHERINE PETERSEN
The future of Sunnyvale's downtown mall may rest in the hands of an unknown buyer. The 17-year-old Sunnyvale Town Center, co-owned by The Hahn Company of San Diego and a pension fund of Bell Atlantic, went on the market last month with a $34 million price tag.
Marc Renard, a broker with Cushman and Wakefield Inc. of Los Angeles, which represents the sellers, said he has received significant interest from more than five sources who may want to buy the property.
"There is potential for a buyer to be secured during the month of July," Renard said.
Bell Atlantic and Hahn each own 50 percent of the mall.
Alberta Davidson, vice president of corporate marketing for the Hahn Company, said it is too early to speculate if Hahn, the general manager and managing partner of the Sunnyvale Town Center, will purchase Bell Atlantic's half. Yet the Hahn Company could have purchased Bell Atlantic's portion of the property without putting the mall on the market, appears to have no interest in retaining Town Center. Hahn, the largest shopping center owner, manager and developer on the West Coast, also owns Valley Fair and Oakridge malls.
Macy's, J.C. Penney and Montgomery Ward, the mall's three anchor stores, which own their own land totaling 228,725 square feet, are not a part of the sale, which includes 283,205 square feet of mall space.
One store manager at the mall, who was unaware of the sale, said it might help the mall obtain more customers. She said the mall has not been doing much business, and even the recent Art & Wine Festival did not bring customers inside.
"It's been very quiet. There's not too much money coming into the mall. All those people at the festival stayed outside. The merchants inside don't benefit at all," the store manager said.
The manager said she has seen many festivals inside malls and that they can bring customers into the stores.
Sunnyvale received $687,425 from the mall in sales tax during the last four quarters. Sales at other regional centers have consistently outpaced Sunnyvale Town Center over the past three years, according to the city's department of economic development.
"It's the only center in the valley that hasn't been remodeled since it was built. I think they need to look at the mix of stores. Their mall focus has been misdirected to a mid-to-low end market and I don't think that's who Sunnyvale is," said Geri Cross, city economic development manager. The city's demographics show a $70,000 average income in a five-mile radius of the mall, Cross added.
She said the center could be an "exciting property" if someone had an imagination and a project was financially feasible.
"Financial feasibility is what people who are looking at the center will evaluate," she said. The mall's vacancy rate is 25 percent.
Greg Moore, manager of Sunnyvale Town Center, declined to comment.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, June 12, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.