Joe Montana's project near 49ers stadium in flux as Lowe leaves, Related hovers

It's been months since we've heard much about Joe Montana's Centennial Gateway — the $400 million office, hotel and retail complex he is backing, slated for an 8-acre site next to Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.

Now comes word of a shakeup in the development team.

Lowe Enterprises is no longer involved in the project, two sources close to the situation tell me. Montana Property Group is now in talks to partner with Related California, which is already developing a much larger project just north of Centennial Gateway, these people said. They asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the discussions.

A shift could help solve the main sticking point — parking for 49ers fans at the stadium— by providing a more comprehensive development site to play with. Both projects are considered huge potential economic drivers for the city, but are complicated because the city owns (and will retain) the land, and the 49ers have rights to parking on the Centennial Gateway parcel

Montana added sports legend star power to the development site by the stadium. The four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback had planned for a Joe Montana-themed restaurant on his parcel, and it remains to be seen how his vision gets executed if new partners are brought into the mix.

First, some back story: Montana and partner Kurt Widdek have been pitching the project on the site since 2010, entering into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city to ground-lease the site in June 2012. Los Angeles-based Lowe

joined the project a little over a year ago, adding its considerable financial and development expertise. Executives described it to me at the time as a 50/50 joint venture. The partners contemplated packing in two hotels, more than 400,000 square feet of office, and 150,000 square feet of retail — including a restaurant operated by the ex-49ers legend.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein covers commercial real estate and transportation for the Silicon Valley Business Journal.