The Forum Development Group, which had originally been slated to begin the project in January, won the bidding for the project, beating out three other developers.

Sunnyvale Director of Community Development Robert Paternoster said that while the city had heard the same news, officials were still waiting for the final word from Lehman about the sale. By press time, they had not heard.

But if Forum is back on the project, its manager Jane Vaughan of Menlo Equities said demolition of the mall could begin as early as May.

The plan is to turn the empty Town Center Mall into a "lifestyle center," similar to San Jose's Santana Row. Forum's plan calls for 275,000 square feet of office space, 292 housing units and a million square feet of retail space, including a movie theater. The project should take

around two years to complete.

"Once you purchase the land, and you spend a lot of money on it, there's no sense in just sitting on it," Vaughan said.

Vaughan said Forum had an advantage in the bidding because they had helped develop the current plan and had already shown their dedication to the redevelopment.

"It was a matter of who could do it in terms of timing, what they were willing to pay for the land and how willing they were to work with the current plan," Vaughan said.

If the project does start by May 1, it will be almost 4 months behind schedule.

According to the Disposition, Development and Owner Participation Agreement signed on December 21, 2004, Fourth Quarter Properties XLVIII, LLC, the company started by Forum and Lehman to carry out the project, was supposed to purchase the property at the end of December

It took Forum longer than expected to get financing for the project, so Lehman ended exclusive negotiations with Forum. Lehman asked the city for an extension to March 31 to find a buyer. On March 23 Lehman asked for another extension to find a developer. The Redevelopment Agency granted the extension until May 31. When that deadline approached, and no deal had been made, Lehman asked for 60 more days, which the Sunnyvale Redevelopment Agency granted on March 29.

Vaughan did not know how much Forum ended up paying Lehman, but she previously estimated the cost at around $75 million.

The project is relatively unchanged from the original plan developed by Forum, but Vaughan said there may be changes because of the extra time and reviews the plan has received.

During the bidding process, the various developers gave their input on the project, and she said Forum may take some of their comments and incorporate them into the plan.

Vaughan said the project would probably not have changed much if another bidder had taken over, because the city had already approved the specifications of the Fourth Quarter plan, and to go back through the city approval process would have added months onto the already delayed timeline.