"...the corner of 85&ElCamino where the dead Emproium mall sat for 20 years because the landowner paid effectively no taxes on the property while borrowing on the appreciated value."
Source?
In fact, Home Depot had already leased that site for a new, modern store to go in immediately, but the City Council thought it should be reserved for "upscale" retail -- a ludicrous concept that, of course, never happened. Read about the 2000 Measure N controversy. Home Depot stayed in Sunnyvale and expanded to EPA instead.
I would note that Home Depot was a proposed lease and not a sale, and people were most worried about awful traffic immediately next to the highway interchange (a Santana Row which went in around the same time wouldn't have been better),
but 'that was the rumor in 2003-4 when it traded hands' which I guess you didn't hear. I lived closer to caltrain.
Edit: If anyone would like a longer reading of the Home Depot kerfuffle-
people were most worried about awful traffic immediately next to the highway
Where better to put a big box store than away from residential property and landlocked by a freeway?
The Sunnyvale Home Depot has no such traffic issues, and it is only accessible from Kifer... which is not a big road. The whole "traffic!" issue was a crock instituted to chase a dream of a "Santana Row West" which never had a chance. The subsequent new huge Safeway Marketplaces at Hacienda and Bernardo/ECR create far more traffic, both in car trips and truck deliveries, yet they engendered no complaints.
The result: the property became a medical center that generates essentially zero sales tax revenue for the city; that lost half-million a year goes to Sunnyvale's Home Depot and Lowe's instead.
Source?
In fact, Home Depot had already leased that site for a new, modern store to go in immediately, but the City Council thought it should be reserved for "upscale" retail -- a ludicrous concept that, of course, never happened. Read about the 2000 Measure N controversy. Home Depot stayed in Sunnyvale and expanded to EPA instead.
I lived literally a block away at the time.