Oak Park Mall tenants can breathe a bit easier.

The city of Austin successfully negotiated a lease extension for mall businesses to stay open until the end of the year as part of ongoing negotiations to purchase the Oak Park Mall site for a proposed Hy-Vee expansion.

Business owners became concerned when the mall’s landlords sent lease termination letters a few weeks ago which asked tenants to leave the mall by Nov. 30. City officials had previously told tenants they would be able to stay through the rest of the year.

“The city of Austin and the Austin Port Authority are pleased that they were able to secure arrangements that will allow the Tenants of Oak Park Mall to remain in business through this important holiday season,” Byram said in a statement. “This project is a very important project in improving the business climate in Austin.”

According to Craig Byram, the Austin Port Authority’s attorney, the mall’s owners, Chicago-based Martin Graff of M H Graff & Associates Inc. and Martin Goldman of M J Goldman & Co. Ltd., needed to send termination letters as part of the purchase agreement between the landlords and the city.

Yet recent negotiations mean the landlords will now issue revised letters and the businesses will stay where they are, for now.

The city and port authority announced a purchase agreement for the mall site last month to make way for a 60,000- to 90,000-square foot Hy-Vee store.

The city’s purchase agreement includes acquisition of the entire mall facility — except Shopko — located at 1301 18th Ave. NW and an additional out lot located along 18th Avenue Northwest. That includes the mall property, Younkers and CineMagic 7. The Shopko property is owned by the retailer.

The move will affect many tenants at the mall. Younkers, Anytime Fitness, the Cinemagic 7 movie theater and the Wells Fargo ATM leases will be honored as part of the deal, but all other tenant leases will be terminated, according to city officials. Finance Director Tom Dankert said there would likely be five or six empty lots within Oak Park Mall that stores could move into, depending on Hy-Vee’s plans for the site.

If all goes well, the city could wrap up negotiations with the mall’s landlords by the end of the year and demolition could begin in early 2015. That depends on a number of factors, however, as the city must honor or renegotiate agreements put in place with Shopko, Younkers and other tenants.

According to the agreement, the current Hy-Vee store at 1001 18th Ave. NW will be demolished within 90 days of its new Oak Park Mall store opening, and the location will be donated to the Port Authority. Hy-Vee has been at its location on 18th Avenue since 1985.