First Rockford Group is in negotiations to build a 450,000 square-foot shopping center in Sycamore.

The development company is still reviewing proposals, said Marc Strauss, the general counsel for First Rockford Group, but hopes the project will be approved by today.

“We have some concepts for two dimensions for how it will look,” Strauss said. “We’ve displayed those to a plan commission and a city council in Sycamore.”

Costs for the project and a list of possible tenants were unavailable as of press time, but Strauss predicted such numbers would become available if and when the project is approved. A two-dimensional drawing for the project places it on the intersection of Route 23 and Peace Road.

Sycamore City Manager Bill Nicklas is similarly confident.

“They’re on step one right now, which is getting through city approvals,” Nicklas said.

Nicklas is optimistic for Sycamore’s future economic success, but denies rivalry between his hometown and next-door neighbor, DeKalb.

“There is competition generated from the development community and from the retailers,” Nicklas said. “We’re not actively trying to steal business from DeKalb and they’re not trying to steal business from us.”

With the way modern business functions, each town is essentially in competition with every other because developers choose which locations would offer the most fiscal success, he said.

Paul Rasmussen, DeKalb’s community development director, predicted a three-year wait before spaces in the center start to fill. Rasmussen said while Sycamore expands its retail appeal, DeKalb plans to maintain and expand their own retail base.

“We have areas on Annie Glidden Road and on the interstate,” Rasmussen said. “There’s room for expansion for both Sycamore and DeKalb. I think there’s room enough for multiple shopping centers.”

Rasmussen said the more the area becomes a retail powerhouse as a whole, the better the outcome will be for either town. Rasmussen called the Sycamore-DeKalb relationship “cooperative competition.”

“Our primary target for the next year is downtown,” Rasmussen said. “We’ll try to define our trade area for downtown and find out what uses are missing in a college town. We’ll be developing strategies for attracting uses.”