Google Village widens with new property deals downtown
Development partner purchases two more parcels in San Jose
SAN JOSE » Google’s realty ally has scooped up two more downtown San Jose parcels — acquisitions that suggest the scope has widened for a proposed Google village in the city’s urban core.
TC Agoge Associates — a group controlled by Google’s development ally on this project, San Francisco-based Trammell Crow — paid a total of $1.3 million for the two properties. Both are a short distance from the Diridon train station and the SAP entertainment center in downtown San Jose.
In the most recent deal, TC
Agoge paid $650,000 on Jan. 3 for a residential structure at 195 N. Autumn St., which is outside of the areas where properties had
previously been purchased on Google’s behalf. The new North Autumn site is between West
Julian and West St. John St. and is part of a square block east of the SAP parking lots.
On Dec. 21, TC Agoge paid $650,000 for a vacant lot at 551 W. Julian St., sold by a government entity supervised by the city of San Jose. The property is north of the SAP Center.
“The North Autumn property is close enough to the north-south daisy chain that Google is assembling, it’s still in the general
vicinity,” said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association. “It does represent a widening of the areas that interest Google.”
Mountain View-based Google plans to build 6 million to 8 million square feet of offices on the west side of downtown San Jose, enough space for 15,000 to 20,000 of the company’s workers.
The development would rise next to Diridon Station, which already is a hub for light rail, Amtrak, Caltrain, ACE Train and bus lines, and is slated to be the nexus for future BART and
high-speed rail stops.
The 195 N. Autumn St. property that Google and Trammell Crow bought is on a narrow block bounded by North Montgomery, West Julian, North Autumn and West St. John streets. Google and its ally previously had bought properties primarily to the west and southwest of this site.
The San Jose Sharks hockey team owns one or more properties just south of 195 N. Autumn St. near the corner of West St. John. In addition, the city of San Jose is eyeing purchases of properties on the other side of the street,
also at Autumn and St. John streets.
The hockey club might want to use properties it owns or might buy on that block for potential parking. That parking also could become a shared-use facility that could serve sports fans, entertainment seekers, or Google workers, said Robert Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use and planning consultancy.
“It’s a pretty smart real estate play for Google to buy this,” Staedler said.