The Sunnyvale Sun

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Fourth Quarter wants to shift development of downtown plan

Replacement to form partnership with local builder in Palo Alto

By JASON GOLDMAN-HALL

More then two months after taking steps to buy the Town Center Mall property from Fourth Quarter Properties and move forward, the city of Sunnyvale has announced possible progress on the long-stalled project.

In addition, rumors about a local developer getting involved seem to have come true, because Peter Pau, affiliated with Palo Alto-based Sand Hill Properties, may partner with the new owners.

The city announced Oct. 26 that Fourth Quarter Properties, LLC, was looking to transfer the project to RREEF, an investment organization with worldwide interests. The plan is to level the empty mall and rebuild it into 1 million square feet of retail space, 250,000 square feet of commercial offices and 292 housing units.

Pau, through Sand Hill Properties, owns the adjacent Town and Country shopping center and a number of other South Bay

developments. Sand Hill is building a Walgreens on El Camino Real next to the already-finished PetSmart and Best Buy buildings.

The city will spend 45 days investigating the proposal before staff gives it to the Sunnyvale Redevelopment Agency for approval. The Sunnyvale RDA is made up of the seven council members.

"We want to look at the proposed partners, see what their relationship is, what their track records are, and whether they seem committed to finishing a project in Sunnyvale," Pilger said.

After the review period, Pilger said construction could start back up within nine months. The city is still looking at an 18- to 24-month construction period before completion. Because the property is being transferred to RREEF, a new Disposition and Development and Owner Participation Agreement will not need to be written up.

Approval of the transfer will take place in a public RDA meeting sometime after the 45-day period ends. There will also be at least one additional public meeting to gather public input if the transfer is approved. RREEF's representatives said they would not comment on the project until a final decision is made.

Pilger said if the transfer is not approved, Sunnyvale will go back to its original intent of trying to buy the property from Fourth Quarter and then finding a new developer for the project.

The city's goal for the 34-acre site is to create a traditional downtown.