Though a new week started with talks still stalled at Oak Park Mall, Austin officials still hope a deal can be reached to convert the space into a new Hy-Vee grocery store and remodeled retail space.

“We remain optimistic that the potential of a vastly improved retail area can still pull this project across the finish line,” City Attorney Craig Byram wrote in an email to the Herald Monday morning.

Byram confirmed Monday that Martin Graff and Martin Goldman, the owners behind Oak Park Mall Ltd. Partnership, still hadn’t granted requests to extend a deadline and continue negotiations as of press time.

The Austin Port Authority terminated a purchase agreement to buy the mall site last week, halting the city’s plans to buy Oak Park Mall for Hy-Vee to build a new 60,000- to 90,000-square-foot grocery store at the site. The port authority was unable to reach amended lease agreements with Younkers, CineMagic 7 and Anytime Fitness or an amended occupancy agreement with Shopko, which owns its own building, by a deadline to finalize the talks.

“The public shares in our frustration that the businesses involved in this transaction were not able to move a plan forward within the time provided for by the Purchase Agreement,” Byram wrote. “However, the public also understands that this is a difficult and complicated task that only makes sense for the public if it is done correctly. The contingencies are a critical component for the port authority to accommodate in order to protect the public from undue risk and financial burdens.”

Last week, Hy-Vee officials stated that it plans to move ahead with plans to build a new store or renovate its current space, regardless of what happens with the stalled Oak Park Mall negotiations.

“Hy-Vee Inc. is committed to the Austin community. If the Oak Park Mall redevelopment project doesn’t move forward, we will return to our original plans to expand and renovate our current Hy-Vee store location,” Hy-Vee’s Assistant Vice President of Communications Tara Deering-Hansen wrote in an email to the Herald last Thursday.

Byram said there’s no normal timetable for these sorts of issues to be resolved.

Oak Park Mall, which came within days of tax forfeiture in 2013, currently owes more than $344,800 in unpaid property taxes on several property lots — including the main mall building and Younkers — from taxes not paid in 2013 and 2014. If left unpaid, the lots would forfeit to the state of Minnesota in May 2017. Oak Park Mall Ltd. Partnership also has a five-year payment plan in place to pay back roughly $19,700 in unpaid taxes on two other lots.

Graff and Goldman have not returned calls for comment.