Cat and mouse game with 8Chan shows difficulty of controlling hate on the internet.
SAN JOSE >> Google has widened its holdings in downtown San Jose with its purchase of a parcel at a key corner that includes a car rental lot within the footprint of the search giant’s proposed transit village.
The most recent purchase by the tech titan is a site at 282 S. Montgomery St., according to Santa Clara County public documents that were filed July 30.
Google has now spent $384.1 million to buy properties in downtown San Jose that it needs for a transit village the company intends to develop near the Diridon train station and the SAP entertainment and sports center.
In the latest transaction, Google paid $2.4 million for the parcel, which fronts on South Montgomery Street and is flanked by Lorraine Avenue and West San Carlos Street, the county property records show.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car, JDM Packing Supplies, and Green Team Movers all operate businesses on the parcel, a survey of the site this week showed.
The company began purchasing properties on the western edges of downtown in December 2016, when it bought an old Pacific Bell building on South Montgomery Street.
Since that initial acquisition, the shopping spree has kept up a steady pace and now includes the sites of some well-known businesses.
Among the businesses that sit atop land that Google has collected for its transit village: Poor House Bistro, World of Sports, Patty’s Inn, Extreme Express Car Wash, and Kearney Pattern Works and Foundry. The Kearney foundry shut its doors this year after a century in operation.
Google also has bought numerous city properties. Among those: surface parking lots and the city’s Fire Training Center. The company also has options to purchase multiple other sites, including the big surface parking lots next to the SAP Center, as well as a church property.
The most recent purchase by Google of the rental car site potentially intensifies a high-stakes game of monopoly at and near that location.
The tech titan has bought multiple sites in a block that’s bounded by South Montgomery Street, Lorraine Avenue, Josefa Street, and West San Carlos Street.
Within that same block, a group led by South Bay property owner Nick D’Arpino, has collected numerous properties over a decades-long period. But Google’s purchases are inter-mingled with the D’Arpino holdings.
D’Arpino’s group, sources familiar with the situation say, is in talks with multiple parties, including Google development ally Trammell Crow, regarding an array of options for the D’Arpino assemblage. Those scenarios include the sale of the D’Arpino parcels to the Google alliance, the sources say.
Mountain View-based Google plans a transit-oriented community of office buildings, homes, restaurants, stores, and open spaces where 25,000 people could work, including 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees.
“Google has a plan, make no mistake about it,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning consultancy. “They are executing it within their timeframe.”