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Tag: san jose real estate

  • Battle over sites near future San Jose BART station may go to trial

    SAN JOSE — A fight over sites near a BART station east of downtown San Jose might be headed to a jury trial that would pit small business owners against the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.

    The VTA is attempting to seize properties it says are needed to construct the 28th Street/Little Portugal BART Station near the interchange of U.S. Highway 101 and East Santa Clara Street. The site is bounded by North 28th Street, East St. James Street, North 30th Street, and Five Wounds Lane.

    Properties bounded by Five Wounds Lane, North 28th Street, East St. James Street, and North 30th Street, that are the site of a future BART station east of downtown San Jose, marked by the lines. Boundaries are approximate. ( Google Maps )

    A business already ousted from the BART site, Monarch Truck Center, moved in 2024 to a new location at 1015 Timothy Drive in San Jose because it was forced to swiftly decamp from its longtime spot at 195 North 30th St. at the request of VTA officials, according to Monarch Truck Center Chief Executive Officer Nicole Guetersloh.

    “We were told we needed to leave so construction could start, but it has been almost two years, and nothing has happened,” Guetersloh told this news organization. “The building is still standing. They haven’t even taken down our signs. The extra time could have made a huge difference for us in terms of finding a new location.”

    Monarch Truck Center headquarters at 1015 Timothy Road in east San Jose, seen in November 2024.(Google Maps)
    Monarch Truck Center headquarters at 1015 Timothy Road in east San Jose, seen in November 2024. (Google Maps)

    In 2021, the VTA filed a lawsuit against the owner of the site as well as Monarch and other businesses at the location as part of an eminent domain proceeding to seize control of the property so the BART station could be constructed.

    The transit agency at one point even asked a Santa Clara County judge to order the businesses to vacate the site before a judgment was issued authorizing VTA to take ownership of the property.

    “To meet the current construction completion schedule and ensure critical path activities are not compromised, the subject property is needed by April 2023,” Gary Griggs, the VTA’s chief program officer for the BART extension in the South Bay, stated in court papers filed in 2022. “Securing possession by this date will allow the contractor(s) to begin building demolition work and site preparation, followed by archaeological testing.”

    The VTA has yet to begin any meaningful work on the site in the face of worsening delays that haunt the BART extension in the South Bay.

    Following the VTA filing, it has been disclosed that massive funding shortfalls have engulfed BART’s extension to three San Jose train stops and one in Santa Clara.

    For Monarch Truck Center, finding a new site and setting up shop wasn’t straightforward.

    “Moving a company like Monarch Truck Center isn’t easy,” Guetersloh said. “There were very few available properties that fell within the boundaries we must adhere to. Even fewer were properly zoned and capable of supporting a full-service truck dealership like ours. Every time I drive by our old location, I can’t help but wonder what was the rush.”

    The VTA’s lawsuit is now headed for a jury trial within the next few weeks, absent an out-of-court settlement of the case, court papers show.

    “After VTA condemned the property, Monarch was forced to relocate to a subpar site with significant limitations,” Monarch Truck stated in a background document regarding the case. “The business has suffered a measurable loss of goodwill and is seeking just compensation. VTA has valued the company’s losses at $0, and the case is headed to trial.”

    George Avalos

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  • Efforts underway to fill empty merchant spaces at Signia hotel in San Jose

    SAN JOSE — Wide-ranging efforts are underway to find merchants to fill the empty ground-floor spaces along two sides of the Signia by Hilton San Jose, endeavors that could help lift the downtown economy if they succeed.

    Colliers, a commercial real estate firm, has begun to scout for dining establishments and retailers for the hotel tower at 170 South Market St.

    “We are looking to lease about 30,000 square feet of spaces at the Signia,” said Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers. “We are going to put some high-end restaurants in some of those spaces. These will be very fine, swanky dining establishments.”

    Some of the spaces will be leased to retailers, such as personal salons and spas, according to Goddard.

    “We are already getting inquiries from some top-level restaurants,” Goddard said.

    The spaces are for the sides of the building that front on the Paseo de San Antonio and South First Street, according to Goddard.

    “Marketing efforts are not the problem with filling these spaces, it’s the uncertainty of the time and cost it will take to permit and occupy the spaces,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use and planning consultancy.

    Finding more merchants for downtown San Jose is deemed crucial ahead of the potential influx of visitors expected to attend three mega sports events that are slated to occur in the South Bay during 2026.

    “The City of San Jose needs to step up and provide proactive assistance in filling these key spaces,” Staedler said. “The wait-and-see approach has not been working to date. We don’t need to wait until after 2026 to realize that this is a problem.”

    The 541-room, 22-story Signia by Hilton is San Jose’s largest hotel and was seized by its lender, BrightSpire Capital, through a foreclosure on May 12.

    The lender’s foreclosure placed a value of $80 million on the hotel, which was 41% below the $134 million loan for the property.

    During a July conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss financial results, BrightSpire discussed its plans for the hotel in the wake of the foreclosure.

    “Our intention is to make much-needed and neglected physical and operational improvements to the property ahead of significant events taking place in the Bay Area through mid-2026,” BrightSpire CEO Mike Mazzei told analysts. “We want to do things that we need to do to get that hotel fully operational and in peak condition before those events.”

    The hotel fell into some level of disrepair as the prior ownership group was preoccupied with three court proceedings that were filed in an attempt to retain control of the property, according to BrightSpire.

    “During the protracted foreclosure process, the hotel experienced meaningful deferred maintenance,” Mazzei said. “There was some distress at the asset. There were just basic things like elevators. Some elevators were not operating and offline.”

    BrightSpire has signaled the possibility that it might attempt to sell the hotel after the major sporting events next year.

    San Jose hotel operators hope to capitalize on the Super Bowl, multiple matches for the FIFA World Cup, and several of the games of the men’s college basketball tournament that are being held in the South Bay in 2026.

    George Avalos

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  • Construction firm buys San Jose office complex, eyes unified work hub

    SAN JOSE — Rosendin Electric, a century-old electrical contractor born out of a San Jose garage in 1919, purchased a San Jose research and office complex known as The Orchards in a deal that enables the firm to gather multiple operations into a unified work hub.

    Barings, a real estate investment firm, was the seller of the 144,900-square-foot two-building property at 3000 and 3030 Orchard Parkway.

    Through the deal, a Barings affiliate was paid $23 million for the buildings and received an additional undisclosed amount paid by two departing tenants to terminate their leases, according to multiple sources familiar with the transaction. The $23 million that Rosendin paid Barings was disclosed in a grant deed filed with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office on Aug. 29.

    Newmark commercial real estate brokers Joe Kelly, Jon Mackey, Steven Golubchik and Edmund Najera and Colliers commercial real estate broker Michael Rosendin arranged the transaction.

    The deal is a fresh indicator of heightened interest in purchases or leases of office sites in north San Jose.

    Among the recent deals:

    — In June, E Ink Corp. bought a San Jose office building at 3200 North First St. for $22.7 million in a deal that gives the firm a large space for its operations.

    — Vibrant Wellness paid $17.5 million in September for an office building at 3100 North First St. that the biotech company can use for expanded operations.

    — In January, Goodwill of Silicon Valley disclosed it capitalized on a failed property loan to pave the way for its purchase of a new headquarters site at 1600 Technology Dr.

    — Nvidia in April launched improvements on an office building at 300 Holger Way that will allow room for expansion.

    — Archer Aviation in August leased an office building at 10 West Tasman Dr. that had been taken back by a lender through a loan foreclosure.

    George Avalos

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