SAN JOSE — Google has scooped up an industrial site in downtown San Jose, widening its property holdings in the area just ahead of a crucial City Council vote on selling the tech titan key government-owned parcels needed for a transit-oriented development near the Diridon train station.
An industrial property in downtown San Jose at 255 N. Autumn St. and 260 N. Montgomery St. that is now owned by Google.
The two properties, bought by Google and Trammel Crow, acting through an affiliate called TC Agoge Associates, are just east of the parking lots of the SAP entertainment and sports complex.
The Google group paid $3 million in cash on Nov. 29 for the industrial parcel with entrances at 260 N. Montgomery St. and 255 N. Autumn St., Santa Clara County property records show.
The Google village is deemed to be a game-changer for San Jose and its downtown, according to several experts, including Teresa Alvarado, director of the San Jose office of SPUR, a non-profit group that seeks development and planning solutions for big cities in the Bay Area.
“This is not only an opportunity to grow San Jose’s job base, but also to build a city,” Alvarado wrote in a Nov. 29 letter to San Jose’s mayor and City Council before this week’s vote on the Google village development.
On Tuesday, , San Jose’s City Council is slated to make a final decision about whether to sell several government-owned properties downtown that would become crucial sites for the proposed transit village Google would develop.
“The location of the transit village is superior to anywhere else Google might be looking,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning consultancy. “This isn’t Google’s first rodeo. They know what they are doing.”
Google’s transit-oriented community could create up to 25,000 new jobs, including at least 15,000 to 20,000 employed directly by the search giant, in a development of office buildings, houses, shops, restaurants, cultural centers and open spaces near the Diridon station.
Since December 2016, including the most recent property deal, Google has now spent at least $237 million buying an eclectic array of industrial and retail sites, vacant lots, and even residential properties.
“This development has the potential to serve as an example for human-centered design that elevates and reinforces San Jose’s history, economy, culture and diversity and leads us down a path toward a more equitable model of prosperity,” Alvarado wrote in her letter to the city.
Article source: https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/12/03/google-buys-downtown-san-jose-industrial-property-in-transit-village-area-in-3-million-cash-deal/
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