The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Fourth Quarter is still silent on city's request to buy land
Town Center Mall project waits as developer fails to respond
By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL
More than two weeks after issuing a notice to Fourth Quarter Properties LLC that city officials were done waiting for development to begin on the Town Center Mall redevelopment, the city finds itself again waiting for a response from the Atlanta-based developers.
As outlined in the Disposition and Developer and Owner Participation Agreement signed between Fourth Quarter and the Sunnyvale Redevelopment Agency, the city is exercising its right to buy the land--known as block 18--from the developers and begin looking for a new developer. The decision to move ahead came almost half a year of waiting after first notifying Fourth Quarter it had breached the contract by failing to meet several development and construction deadlines.
"Not only had they failed to cure the breach of contract, but they were generally unresponsive in providing us with the information we requested from them," said Sunnyvale communications officer John Pilger.
Pilger said the city is waiting to begin negotiations with the developers to agree on a fair price for the land.
If the two parties cannot agree, each will hire an outside appraiser. Each appraiser will come up with a price for the land, and if the two figures are within 20 percent of one another, the final price will be the average of the two. If the numbers are off by more than 20 percent, the appraisers will hire a third appraiser to find a value for the land.
The entire process hinges on Fourth Quarter responding to the city's notice.
Pilger said while many in the city and community are anxious for the project to get back on track, the city has to be careful to give Fourth Quarter reasonable time to respond. He said no more than a month should be needed, and more than half that time has already elapsed.
If Fourth Quarter does not respond, the city could take legal action to force the developers into action.
"We don't want to go into court over this, because in every case, that becomes expensive and time-consuming," Pilger said.
Fourth Quarter owner Stan Thomas has not returned multiple requests for comment.
