The Sun Sunnyvale's Newspaper City threatens to overtake downtown plot of land Dubrovnik passes on council's offer of $1 million for parcel By Justin Berton The city of Sunnyvale needs one small patch of land to move forward with the downtown redevelopment, but the owners don't want to sell it--not yet, at least. At the Sept. 15 Redevelopment Agency meeting, city officials threatened to take legal action against Dubrovnik Associates, owners of a vacant half-acre lot next to the Town and Country Shopping Village. Dubrovnik Associates bought the shopping center and its three acres of land earlier this year for $10 million. The city offered the company $1 million in cash for the lot, but the company rebuffed the offer, claiming the value of the land is still undetermined. After stalled negotiations produced "a great deal of frustration," city manager Robert LaSala asked councilmembers to pass a resolution that would start eminent domain proceedings. LaSala asked the council to take the first step and adopt the resolution, but refrain from filing with the courts until all negotiation efforts had failed. Under eminent domain procedures, the city would take the land for public purposes--in this case, the redevelopment of downtown. A jury would decide the fair market value of the land. The city would then pay Dubrovnik Associates that amount. For the time being, council passed on the resolution, instead voting 6-0 to give Dubrovnik Associates one more week to prove good faith in the negotiations. If the Redevelopment Agency is not satisfied with progress in the talks by the Sept. 22 meeting, it could pass the resolution to begin the acquisition. Nick Gera, a representative of Dubrovnik Associates, said the group could not accurately assess the small piece of property until the city outlined its plans for the new downtown. "It's difficult for me to determine a value if you don't tell me what you're going to do," Gera told the Redevelopment Agency. LaSala said an independent assessor reached the $1 million figure after factoring in the raised value of the property following the announcement of a new downtown. But Gera said his company wants to know how the lot will be used, and what impact the new downtown will have on the company's Town and Country Shopping Center. LaSala told council, "We can't give him the definite information that he would like, what I would like to give him, frankly." Gera has four issues he wants the city to address before he sells the land: parking, signage, circulation and access. Gera said the two to four years of construction could devastate Town and Country retail shops if adequate parking and easy entry are not provided to the center. He also wants the city to provide signage to direct shoppers to the center. LaSala said the city would provide "as many parking spaces as humanly possible" during the construction years to keep the shopping center accessible. City attorney Valerie Armento said Dubrovnik Associates would have 30 days to respond once papers for eminent domain proceedings are filed. After 30 days, since the lot is vacant, the city would enact an immediate order of possession to acquire the land. If a legal battle ensues, it would not delay the start date for the redevelopment process, she said. Gera and the city have been in verbal negotiations for the past two months. The city has also sent several letters to the company, documenting official offers for the land. LaSala said Dubrovnik Associates had not replied to any of the letters, thereby forcing the threat of legal action. "I am at a loss as to why, really, we are at this point and regret we haven't accomplished more," LaSala said. Gera did not dispute the failure to reply, saying his company has a different style of negotiating than the city's. "Our style of doing things is a more informal approach," Gera said. "These days are changing, but we try to do these things on a handshake," he said. Gera also confirmed LaSala's claim that Dubrovnik Associates was trying to negotiate a land swap for the small lot, a move that LaSala said was of no interest to the city. [ Back to Contents Page | Sunnyvale Sun Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, September 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.