VTA pushes to seize downtown site needed for BART station
Regional transit agency files lawsuit to obtain property for future train stop
SAN JOSE >> A powerful regional transit agency has launched a legal action to attempt to seize ownership of a downtown San Jose property that’s needed for the development of a future BART station.
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has filed a lawsuit seeking a judge’s permission to use eminent domain to acquire a property at 29 and 31 E. Santa Clara St. in downtown San Jose, court papers filed on Dec. 17 show.
“VTA seeks to acquire the property for the development, construction, operation and maintenance of the VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase Two Project,” the transit agency said in the legal filing in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Phase two of BART service in Silicon Valley consists of three stops in San Jose and a single stop in the city of Santa Clara.
The San Jose stops are 28th Street/Little Portugal Station east of the downtown, the Downtown San Jose Station at First Street and Santa Clara Street, and Diridon Station on the western edges of the downtown.
The parcel at 29 and 31 East Santa Clara St. is one of several in San Jose that are the target of VTA lawsuits and eminent domain proceedings.
At present, the site consists of a two-story building with retail operations on the ground floor and four residential units on the second floor, according to the
LoopNet commercial real estate listing service.
“The property is specifically needed for the construction, operation and maintenance of a portion of the planned downtown San Jose BART station,” the VTA stated in the court papers.
The principal owner of the 29-31 E. Santa Clara St. site is an entity operating as Z Hanna LLC, court papers show. Lars Fuller, an individual, is the provider of an existing mortgage on the property.
The VTA eminent domain maneuver could complicate efforts to develop the Eterna Tower residential highrise that’s been proposed by Bay Area developer Loida Kirkley.
The original version of that tower, disclosed in 2020, envisioned a 26-story residential highrise with 96 units at 17 E. Santa Clara St., currently an empty building that was the site of a fatal arson fire that scorched a former adult toy shop.
In 2020, Roygbiv Real Estate Development, which
Kirkley heads, paid $3.4 million to buy the empty property at 17 through 25 E. Santa Clara St. in downtown San Jose.
Then in May 2021, Roygbiv proposed a much larger tower with 200 residential units that would occupy 17 through 31 E. Santa Clara St. — a proposal that had anticipated using the site that the VTA seeks to seize at 29 through 31 E. Santa Clara St.
Kurt Anderson, an architect who has been working with Kirkley and Roygbiv
Real Estate to develop Eterna Tower and other downtown San Jose towers, declined to discuss the situation or how the VTA efforts might affect Eterna Tower.
“I have no comment and am not privy to any of the legal proceedings,” Anderson said.
The other San Jose properties that VTA is seeking to acquire through the lawsuits are, according to court papers:
• Eight parcels on a big site that’s bounded by East St. James Street, North 30th Street, 5 Wounds Lane and North 28th Street. The most notable businesses on the sites are Monarch Truck Center, a truck sales operation; Della Maggiore Stone, a granite supplier; and Della Maggiore Tile. These would be required for BART’s 28th Street/Little Portugal Station.
• A building with addresses that range from 41 through 55 W. Santa Clara St. whose tenants include Chase Bank and the VTA. These would be required for BART’s Downtown San Jose Station.
VTA claims that the BART Silicon Valley extension project is crucial to improving and expanding transportation and transit options in the South Bay.
“The project will be the single largest public infrastructure project ever constructed in Santa Clara County,” the VTA claimed in the court papers. “The project anticipates 54,600 weekday riders by 2040.”
The extension to the Diridon station, which is also served by Caltrain, will also be a vital step for regional rail services, according to the VTA’s website.
“Completion of the project will finally ‘ring the bay’ with frequent rail service,” the VTA stated in a web post.
The new BART stations would also usher in dramatic changes in downtown San Jose, opined Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.
“We really do need BART in downtown San Jose,” Staedler said. “It’s hard to over-emphasize what BART would mean to the downtown. It’s easy to scoff at transit. But the success of the Santa Clara Valley will be determined by how we can add transit to move people around the Bay.”