Sunnyvale Town Center deal closes for $100 million

After nearly a year in escrow, a joint venture of Hunter Storm, Sares Regis Group of Northern California and others has closed on the long-dormant Sunnyvale Town Center.

The group bought the property from Wells Fargo for $100 million, according to county records. The sale was for almost the entire half-finished 36-acre Town Center property, though former site developer Sand Hill Property Co., does own the parcel Macy’s currently occupies.

The City of Sunnyvale approved the transfer from Wells Fargo, which took control of the property in 2009 after winning a legal battle against Sand Hill, to the new development team in Dec. 2015.

In a former life, the Town Center was a large enclosed mall, and plans to convert the site to an open-air development full of retail, offices and residential were ready as early as 2004. Construction stalled during the Great Recession and the site has been dormant since 2009.

Drew Hudacek, chief investment officer for Sares Regis Group of Northern California, said the joint venture is now focused on pulling building permits for the first phase of construction, which will take two years. That phase will see the completion of 198 partially-built multifamily housing units, retail space lying underneath those units and demolishing the steel framework of Redwood Square, a 200,000 square foot area meant to be the Town Center’s future central retail plaza.

Hudacek said he hopes to have residents and retailers occupying spaces before the end of the two-year timetable, and that the project is helped by the fact that tens of millions of dollars of roads, sidewalks, electricity and other infrastructure are already in place.

The project, located in historic downtown Sunnyvale, is important for the city’s effort to activate the downtown area south of its lively Murphy Avenue.