The Sunnyvale Sun
News
Downtown businesses cope with trucks, dust, promises
By Stephen Baxter
The scent of fresh dirt is in the air in Sunnyvale.
Sixty dump trucks have made 300 trips a day hauling dirt and rubble out of Sunnyvale's battered downtown mall in recent weeks, and many business owners and residents say progress on the new town center has been worth a parking crunch and a certain smell of earth.
Developers from San Mateo-based Sand Hill Property Co. met with business owners and downtown residents in two meetings on May 30, and many attendees expressed enthusiasm about the project's pace. Some said they were surprised to see work trucks exiting the project on S. Mathilda Avenue, but city officials said trucks would be diverted to W. McKinley Avenue on June 11.
Sand Hill is knocking down Sunnyvale's aging 1970s-era mall and replacing it with a more traditional downtown within Mathilda, W. Washington, S. Sunnyvale and W. Iowa avenues. White wooden walls surround the project, and Macy's and Target remain open next to it.
The project will top $400 million and include dozens of new restaurants, more than 1 million square feet of shops, a public square, 300 townhouses, a hotel, movie theater, grocery, offices and parking garages. Planners hope to finish by early 2009.
"I'm pretty happy with the way things are going," said Joe Antuzzi, president of the Sunnyvale Downtown Association. Antuzzi also owns the white-tablecloth Il Postale restaurant at 127 W. Washington Ave. across from the construction site, and he said customers have had more trouble parking in recent weeks. A parking lot next to Macy's is closed, and he said even longtime residents are having trouble finding the no-fee city lot across from the post office under Plaza Del Sol.
More signs are needed to direct drivers to the lot, Antuzzi said. Parking will be squeezed further when Town and Country on Washington is closed later in 2007.
On S. Murphy Avenue, acupuncturist and Sunnyvale resident Ann Dugan said Sand Hill leaders have been more open to the needs and concerns of the residents and business owners than previous developers. She and her customers have been mostly satisfied with the progress, but the project's full impact has not been felt yet.
"For such a big project it's pretty noninvasive. Dirt is everywhere, but they're not magicians," Dugan said.
On June 6, Caterpillar earth movers scooped mounds of concrete debris from a mall building next to Target while a worker in a lift hosed the area to keep dust down.
Some merchants harbor suspicions about Sand Hill because its predecessor, Fourth Quarter Properties, stopped work on its planned mall and defaulted on an agreement with Sunnyvale's redevelopment agency in 2006. Fourth Quarter sold the land in December to Sand Hill and RREEF, a global real estate investment firm.
Sand Hill opened a temporary construction office at 704 Town and Country, near the corner of Frances Street and Capella Way. Residents and downtown business leaders are welcome to drop by with questions, Sand Hill leaders said.
"We have had no complaints so far," said Sand Hill project manager Reed Moulds in late May. "I think people are just relieved things are happening there--they're not too picky," he said.
The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety reported that youths had trespassed and vandalized the construction site before work restarted, but it stopped when a 24-hour security team began a patrol.
Moulds said Sand Hill will launch a construction website June 27, and later it will include a webcam.
The firm hosts public meetings with business owners on the last Wednesday of each month. The next meeting will be at 9 a.m., June 27 at 704 Town and Country. A meeting for residents will be held at 5:30 p.m. the same day.
"We hope we can finish this work as quickly as possible," Moulds said.
More project information, including artist renderings, is available on the city's website at www.sunnyvale.ca.gov.
