The logjam keeping the long-stalled Station Park lifestyle shopping center in Farmington from going forward broke this week when Harmons announced it would open an upscale grocery store and deli in early 2011.

"It clearly is [a breakthrough]. With the slowdown in the economy, they are the first of the anchor tenants to say, 'Let's get open now,' " Craig Trottier, a vice president at developer CenterCal Properties, said Wednesday.

"For the past 18 months, most of the retailers have been asking us to push back their openings. Harmons is the first key anchor tenant to ask us to accelerate the opening and actually move it up."

On Monday, Harmons and CenterCal said the El Centro, Calif.-based developer will build a 68,000-square-foot store on the east side of the 62-acre property. CenterCal will start construction as soon as weather permits next spring. Harmons will open the store with a long-term lease a year later.

At the same time, work will begin on a Cinemark movie theater complex anchoring the south end of Station Park. The 14-screen theater will also open in early 2011.

"This is the first step of moving Station Park forward," said Farmington city manager Max Forbush.

"We are hopeful that, with the Harmons being constructed and also the Cinemark, those two projects will be the impetus for continued interest and development on the site. We are hopeful that within three to five years it will all be completed," Forbush said.

Harmons is the first tenant to publicly signal its desire to be a Station Park tenant. Others are apparently in the wings. Trottier said he expects "a series" of tenants to announce their intentions in the next 30 days to 90 days.

Built out, Station Park will have 800,000 square feet to 1 million square feet of retail and office space. The final figure will depend on whether CenterCal signs a hotel tenant and how big-box retailers will want their buildings configured.

Either way, however, the center will have a strong effect on shopping and dining in Davis County and other parts of northern Utah.

With 60 tenants to 80 tenants, Station Park won't have as many stores and restaurants as the Layton Hills Mall in Layton (125 tenants) or the Newgate Mall in Ogden (more than 100).

Station Mall will have a bigger footprint, though. It should also feel more spacious. Stores and offices will be sprinkled through an outdoor park-like setting, with the potential to draw people to the area, much like The Gateway, a pedestrian-friendly destination shopping district in Salt Lake City.

"Demographics certainly were a key for us," John Ward, Harmons' chief financial officer, said of his company's decision to build its first grocery store in Davis County.

"But in today's economy, the developer is as much a part of the decision, and CenterCal is just an exceptional developer," Ward said.

CenterCal was formed in 2004 to develop retail shopping properties across the West. It has finished six properties and is developing eight others. Its partner is the California State Teachers Retirement System, which is financing construction of Station Park.

Station Park is on Farmington's west side, at a spot likely to funnel thousands of shoppers onto the property, Ward said.

"Davis County has been requesting a Harmons for a number of years. We just hadn't found the right location," he said.

"Now the transit corridors of the Legacy Highway, Interstate 15, U.S. 89 and the new FrontRunner [commuter rail system] all hub right at that location."

The Harmons store will be patterned after the company's Bangerter Crossing flagship in Draper.

Although Harmons announced it would occupy 68,000 square feet, the company is already thinking bigger.

"We think because we are so impressed with that location that it will go up to 71,000 square feet," Ward said.

pbeebe@sltrib.com