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Financial Feasibility and Fiscal Impacts <br /> As was noted previously during the August 2022 City Council meeting, sales tax <br /> revenue generated by the mall has steadily declined, more steeply since 2015, <br /> attributed principally to the growing popularity of e-commerce and impacts from the <br /> COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this trend, the location of the mall near two major <br /> freeways, in close proximity to BART, and in a desirable community makes the mall <br /> area a valuable asset from an economic perspective. With regard to retail, the mall's <br /> owner Simon Property Group reports seeing a relatively good recovery among its <br /> tenants, and its outlook on the prospects for the ongoing health of the mall's core retail <br /> shops and anchor tenants remains very positive. Further, all owners have expressed an <br /> interest in potential diversification of land use. <br /> EPS notes that based on the types of uses being considered, high-density residential <br /> and office are likely to be well-received by the market, followed by office and hotel; the <br /> success of existing retail will likely be tied to overall redevelopment efforts. <br /> Financial Feasibility of Conceptual Scenarios <br /> While the conceptual scenarios could be expected to be economically viable over the <br /> long-term, they are also subject to fluctuating market dynamics, and high cost of <br /> development including infrastructure, financing, and amenities. Of the various land uses <br /> referenced in the conceptual scenarios, high-density residential is likely to provide the <br /> greatest investment return to a property owner; a large office building, such as <br /> Workday, could also be favorable given the proximity to BART. New retail construction <br /> is not as likely to "pencil" unless it is integrated with other land uses, such as high- <br /> density residential or large-scale office. <br /> Fiscal Impact <br /> EPS provided a high-level analysis of the fiscal impact of the conceptual scenarios (i.e., <br /> impact of the proposed land uses to the City's General Fund budget relative to existing <br /> baseline conditions). The EPS analysis indicates that the fiscal performance of the three <br /> scenarios relative to baseline conditions is highly sensitive to key assumptions related <br /> to the future performance of the retail uses at the mall. If property owners are unable to <br /> find desirable tenants to fill existing vacant spaces (e.g., those formerly occupied by <br /> Sears and Nordstrom), then redevelopment for high-density residential and potentially <br /> office or hotel, will have a positive impact on the City's General Fund budget relative to <br /> baseline conditions (i.e., existing large vacant tenant spaces). Alternatively, if the <br /> existing vacant spaces would otherwise be re-tenanted by highly successful retail <br /> tenants, this outcome would likely be slightly preferable from a fiscal perspective as <br /> compared to the baseline conditions. However, among the scenarios themselves, there <br /> is not a significantly more positive or negative fiscal outcome for one (compared to <br /> baseline conditions), when compared to each other. Finally, across all of the scenarios, <br /> there is a positive fiscal balance for the City, in that the General Fund revenues <br /> estimated from the future land uses (e.g., sales and property tax), would in each case <br /> be greater than the cost of providing services to the project area. <br /> Page 14 of 17 <br />