The sale of the JCPenney building removed the largest hurdle in the path of downtown development.

Harvest Partners—which sold the property to Lehman Ali Inc.—had its own plans for using the property, plans that did not fit into the Forum Development Group's design to demolish the building and restore the old street grid. The city of Sunnyvale has supported Forum's proposed ideas in an effort to revitalize the downtown area, which has been plagued with a number of problems, including the blight of the mainly empty Town Center Mall.

The JCPenney building was key to the redevelopment because the Forum group's plan calls for the building to be demolished, allowing McKinley Avenue to connect Mathilda and Sunnyvale avenues.

According to the proposed plan, there would be shops and a movie theater where the empty JCPenney building currently stands.

According to Robert Paternoster, director of community development for the city of Sunnyvale, the next step in the process—selection of a master developer for the downtown project—should take place March 2 at the redevelopment agency meeting. Although project proposals are not in yet, Paternoster expects Forum to submit a formal proposal and said theoretically there could be submissions from other developers as well.

Target manager Paul Bennie said that business in his store has been suffering because of the negative perception of the mall, due in large part to the empty stores and condemned parking structure that stands between Target and Mathilda Avenue.

By opening up the area and allowing traffic through what will be the extended McKinley Avenue, Bennie predicts that more shoppers will enter Target and Macy's—because both are well-known stores—and bring much-needed patronage back to the area and to other stores.

"Movement is definitely a step in the right direction," Bennie said. "We think it needs to have happened yesterday."

Before any changes can occur, however, Paternoster said, there are a number of procedural steps that must be followed. After a developer is selected, a disposition of development agreement between the city and the developer must be signed, because during construction, properties will be shifted. If the street grid is restored, some property currently owned by storeowners will become city property, and some will be turned into new shops, with new owners.

In addition, Paternoster said a special development permit must be granted to the developer to begin work on the property.

The earliest approval on the project could occur April 27, with the city council approving the permit and the redevelopment agency approving the development agreement. Both groups are made up of the same seven members, so the approvals could be done in the same night.

At press time, Paternoster said negotiations were still going on, to bring all the parties together into one united entity before a master development plan can be implemented.