Council approves big mixed-use development

Complex would have close to 800 units, 11% of those deemed affordable

SUNNYVALE >> The Sunnyvale City Council has approved a massive housing, retail and office development that supporters say will give downtown a long-overdue face-lift and economic boost.

The mixed-use project calls for 793 apartments and condos — 11% of them affordable — almost 182,000 square feet of retail space and about 653,000 square feet of office space, all within a short walk from the city’s Historic Murphy Avenue and a quarter mile from a Caltrain station.

“One of the speakers said this is an exciting moment in time, and they couldn’t have been more correct,” Council member Glenn Hendricks said shortly before the 5-0-0-2 vote Wednesday morning half an hour past midnight. Mayor Larry Klein and Council member Gustav Larsson recused themselves hours earlier because they live near the development.

“We’ve authorized the city manager and the team to negotiate this,” Hendricks added, “I have items I could nitpick about in this development agreement. But I want to take a macro view of this project. I believe it is in the city and residents’ best interests … by approving and moving forward with this project right now.”

Richard Mehlinger, chairman of an organization called Livable Sunnyvale, was among many speakers who urged the council to approve the plan without delay.

“We have been waiting for a very, very long time for this,” he said. “I moved to Sunnyvale in 2011. The first time I came to downtown, I saw those apartment buildings and said, ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be really nice to live in one of those?’ I found out the whole story of how the downtown had been delaying, how the great recession had stopped the development. It broke my heart.

“Now we finally have a chance to fix that, to make it right. This project will bring much-needed homes, will bring much-needed jobs and will fill a gap in our city, heal a wound that existed on our city for far too long.”

The project is technically the second phase of the CityLine development in a 34-acre area known as Block 18, which once was home to a vibrant shopping mall and a Macy’s department store that shuttered last year. CityLine now will include an AMC movie theater complex and a Whole Foods Market.

City project planner Trudi Ryan said there is no timeline at this point for completion of

the second phase.

When the project is finished, the area will have 1,085 housing units, including 124 affordable ones, 642,000 square feet of retail and nearly 967,000 square feet reserved for office use, in addition to a plaza that will be named Redwood Square.

“We share very deep respect with the city and the council and I think the whole community for the importance of this project,” Dave Hopkins of developer Sares Regis Group of Northern California told the council. “A downtown in some respects belongs to the community. When you do it right, we think it can lift the entire city. We’re of the opinion that our plan does do that.”

Deke Hunter of developer Hunter Storm — which along with the Sares Regis Group of Northern California is part of a joint venture called STC Venture LLC — noted the array of retail opportunities such a large undertaking can provide.

“This downtown is about diversity and opportunity,” he said. “As we change the face of the retail of this project, half a million square feet will now allow us to bring in new opportunities as our community bounces back from this pandemic, hopefully in the next year. We’ll have a chance for people that live in our community to open up boutiques, for us to focus on food and beverage, and to create diversity within the community of this retail space.”

Public speakers stayed up past midnight to voice support of the project that Ryan noted in her slideshow presentation will assist Sunnyvale in several ways — notably by bringing $10.5 million to a community benefit fund, publicly accessible open space, publicly available parking (325 all day, 1,100 on evenings and weekends), a community room and an ice rink for three seasons.

Jean Cohen, political director of UA Local Union 393, said her organization, which specializes in building and construction trades, approves the project because of the boost it will give the local economy.

“This project provides additional (housing) units to ensure that working families can live in Sunnyvale as well as secure jobs with good wages and good benefits,” she said. “Our local apprentices, many of which are veterans, are ready to build this project and transform downtown Sunnyvale.”