Mega-mall developer Taubman is the financier behind a secret campaign to sink plans to build a Neiman Marcus in downtown Walnut Creek. (Click here to read Elisabeth Nardi’s story in the Times.)

Campaign finance reports filed by today’s deadline show Michigan-based Taubman spent $95,000 on a referendum petition that called for the city to withdraw its approval of the Broadway Plaza center expansion project. (Click here for Taubman’s major donor report or click here for Taubman’s supplemental statement.)

The report ends speculation that Taubman was behind the campaign. The secrecy infuriated many Walnut Creek residents who called it unconscionable that an outside mall company would anonymously launch an attack on its downtown planning efforts.

The only known face of the campaign, Southern California consultant Al Abrams, consistently declined to name his client as did all the attorneys involved in the effort.

Taubman also hired a familiar face in Contra Costa County: Tom Koch.

Koch earned $2,500 as of this reporting period for consulting services. Koch has been involved in numerous Contra Costa land-use issues including Dougherty Valley, Alamo Creek, Roddy Ranch and his most recent venture, “New Farm” in Tassajara Valley.

Taubman and Broadway Plaza owner Macerich are among a handful of mall developers in the United States that often wage war on each other’s projects though the courts, ballot measures and publicity campaigns.

Taubman owns Sunvalley in Concord but no one suspects that Neiman Marcus was ever planning to take over the shopping real estate now occupied by Sears.

Instead, sources in the mall development world say Taubman has been working to bring Neiman Marcus to San Ramon as part of its new city center project. The idea is that Neiman Marcus will only choose one East Bay location.

However, Sunset Development CEO Alex Mehran, the city center developer, has vehemently denied that he has any such deal with Taubman or any other retail developer.