Construction equipment and earth movers began lining up Wednesday in the Edison Pointe lot just south of Fry’s Marketplace on John Wayne Parkway, an encouraging sign after what has been a multi-year struggle to develop the site.

Despite what appears to be a commencement of the project, there has been no official ground breaking.

Casey Treadwell, leasing director for Vintage Partners, the developer of the project, said there are still a few ducks left to line up before the project officially gets under way. The work beginning this week is an effort to prep for larger scale construction that now seems imminent.

“The previous development had some utilities and also some grading that didn’t exactly match what we’re going to do.” Treadwell said. “So, what the public is going to see out there is us going out there correcting some things from the previous development that started and then stopped.”

Though the activity is certainly preliminary to the larger project, Vintage Partners still has not released a set timeline for construction.

Stores looking at space in the new development include a big box pet store, clothing retailers, an automotive service center and restaurants.