For more than a decade, it’s been the subject of wish lists and rumors, floated locations and possible plans.

But now, it may finally become reality: Target is in confirmed, active lease negotiations for a store in downtown Denver.

The Minneapolis-based retailer is eyeing the California Mall building at 1600 California St. for a 28,130-square-foot urban store in the heart of downtown, according to city council documents. It’s a potentially blockbuster deal that could fill an important retail gap for downtown residents and pump new life into a block that has been slow to revitalize, despite being one of the busiest on the 16th Street Mall.

The smaller-format store would fill the second and third floors of the three-story building, which has been more than half-empty since owner Sixteen Cal LLC — an entity registered to the Gart family — shuttered the building’s second-story food court in 2006.

“It’s been a long time that we’ve had great dining and entertainment opportunities and other specialty retail downtown, but not the general merchandise that’s part of our daily lives,” said Mark Sidell, president of Gart Properties. “This is one of the last pieces of that important puzzle, along with the school downtown. You can really live downtown and you don’t have to leave the moment your family grows.”

A Target spokeswoman on Thursday confirmed the retailer has looked at locations in downtown Denver but said they were “not at a point where we can share any new store plans.”

“We are currently focused on new store growth with our flexible-format stores, which are smaller than our general merchandise Target stores and are located in dense urban and suburban neighborhoods as well as college campuses,” Target spokeswoman Kristy Welker said in an e-mail.

More than two dozen such “flexible-format” stores — all 50,000 square feet or less and each with a custom mix of merchandise — are set to open nationwide by the end of 2017, compared to just two large-format stores, according to Target.

The product mix in the downtown Denver store would be focused on “urban households and downtown workers,” city documents say.

Before you start lining up on the sidewalk for a grand opening, though, Sidell said any deal is contingent on approval of a city incentive package.

The $4 million Business Incentive Fund, BIF, package would be provided in two parts: a $2 million advance for tenant improvements payable to Sixteen Cal upon store opening and an annual 50-50 split of the generated sales tax for up to 20 years, or another $2 million. After that second $2 million is hit, Sixteen Cal’s 50 percent share would go to repay the $2 million advance, also secured by a deed of trust on the property.

A city council committee is scheduled to consider the incentive package Feb. 15 in advance of a full council vote as soon as Feb. 27.

“This is the right place and right time for additional signature expansions in our downtown core,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement. “The redevelopment of our 16th Street Mall is critical and bringing strong retail to the area is key to those plans.”

The BIF, which also provided incentives to Costco, United Airlines and BP Lower 48, typically has about $1.2 million in its pool each year.

Paul Washington, executive director of the Denver Office of Economic Development, said the size of the Target incentives is more than justified given the financial and strategic returns of having one of the nation’s largest retailers on the 16th Street Mall.

A downtown Target is expected to generate about $500,000 in sales tax a year, he said. A 2013 city retail study identified a need for more general merchandise retailers in the city to combat sales leakage — a fancy way to say people are leaving Denver to do their shopping — and 16th Street was a top target.

“It’s very competitive to get these retailers, particularly within the urban core in a new format. Denver is not competitive with cities within the region as much as we’re competitive with cities throughout the nation, Chicago, Seattle, others,” Washington said. “The fact that Target is making this bet speaks to how vibrant Denver has become.”

Downtown and city officials have been working, from some angle or another, to attract Target downtown for the better part of two decades, said Tami Door, CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

Often mentioned was the block directly across from the California Mall building, bounded by 15th, 16th, Welton and California and home to two historic buildings.

For years, that block had a patchwork of ownership that made any major redevelopment difficult, but in 2005, local developer Evan Makovsky began painstakingly assembling all 11 parcels. Now, it’s home to a restored Sage Building and slated for a 32-story office tower that could break ground in early 2018 and a possible future hotel development.

Finally landing Target will be “transformative” for downtown, Door said.

“It sends a very strong message that this is an urban environment, a growing environment that can support this kind of retail,” she said. “It sends a message to individuals who are living here or are seeking to live here that there are amenities to meet their needs. It sends a message to developers if they’re developing residential housing it is further supported by amenities.”

Gart’s current plans do not call for adding any new square footage to the existing building, Sidell said. The second floor measures 19,220 square feet and the partial third floor is 8,310 square feet, according to a building plan on Gart Properties’ website.

The building’s existing ground-floor tenants, which include Chipotle, Red Robin, Einstein Bros. Bagels and Great Clips, would stay on, Sidell said.

For Gart, which also owns the Denver Pavilions downtown, it was important to wait for the right opportunity and the right tenant, he said.

“We’re excited to spearhead this effort working with the city, the Office of Economic Development and the Downtown Denver Partnership to create a mutually beneficial opportunity for this catalytic retailer to join other leading retailers on the 16th Street Mall,” Sidell said.