Retail center in Little Saigon district purchased for $11.6M

SAN JOSE >> A retail center in east San Jose's Little Saigon district has been bought — for the second time in a year — by a Bay Area-based investment group.

Little Saigon Plaza, a retail, supermarket and restaurant center on Story Road near McLaughlin Avenue and U.S. Highway 101, has been bought for $11.6 million, according to documents filed on Dec. 5 with the Santa Clara County Recorder's Office.

The deal points to rising values for this type of commercial property in Silicon Valley, according to a Bay Area News Group review of property records in the recent and previous transactions for the retail center. The property has addresses ranging from 1150 through 1210 Story Road.

The buyer was a group affiliated with members of the Millbrae-based Pov & May Tov Family Foundation, according to county and state public records.

Intelli, an affiliate headed up by Do Van Tron, a San Jose-based business and real estate executive, sold the retail center to the Tov Family group, the property documents show.

In December 2021, slightly under a year ago, the Intelli group bought the center, paying about $9 million, county property records show.

The new transaction shows a 28.9% jump in the center's price in the intervening year.

The grocery store-anchored center's tenants include Sieu Thi Story (Story Supermarket), Banh Mi Oven, Busy Cuts, Dong Phuong Tofu, Viet Air Cargo, Com Tam Thanh and U Pick Chelious Fusion Food, according to a marketing brochure for the center that was circulated by Helm Properties.

The just-bought center is near Grand Century Mall and Vietnam Town, which are large and popular retail and restaurant centers in Little Saigon.

At the time of the purchase, the buying group that is headed up by the Tov Family members obtained a loan of $6.2 million from Avidbank, the county documents show.