Oakridge shopping center buys property at south S.J. mall site amid upgrades

The property purchase could bolster wide-ranging improvements at retail center

SAN JOSE » The principal owner of Westfield Oakridge shopping center has bought a site next to the south San Jose mall in a deal that could bolster a wide-ranging and dramatic revival and upgrade of the big retail hub.

Oakridge Mall has bought a property on a site that’s adjacent to the San Jose shopping center.

“As part of the center’s continuing evolution, Unibail-rodamcowestfield, Oakridge’s owner and operator, has also acquired the adjacent 2,500-square-foot parcel located on Blossom Hill Road and is determining future plans for it,” Oakridge Mall stated in comments emailed to this news organization.

The transaction represents a swift profit for local developer Don Imwalle, who had bought the site just last August through an affiliate.

In August, the Imwalle affiliate paid $3 million for the property, according to Santa Clara County public documents.

Oakridge Mall paid Imwalle $3.34 million for the parcel, property records filed on Jan. 22 show. The deal was all-cash.

“We did sell it for more, we made a little bit of money on it,” Imwalle said.

It turns out the property was quite popular when it was put up for sale last summer.

“There were 16 bidders on the property,” Imwalle said. “We were the most aggressive on the terms and offered a higher price. We found out afterward that Oakridge was one of the bidders.”

Before long, it made sense to Imwalle that the ultimate best move would be to sell the property to the mall owners, according to Imwalle.

“Oakridge has visions for the property,” Imwalle said. “We didn’t want to get in their way, once we found out Oakridge was one of the bidders that wanted the property. They were willing to come in and cover all of our transactional costs. We made a little money on the way out.”

The deal represented an 11 percent jump in the property’s value in about five months.

The property purchase arrived amid a major improvement effort at Westfield Oakridge.

The upgrade will add several new merchants, including a mattress retailer and game and entertainment site.

The revival replaces a former Sears department store and a shuttered Sears automotive repair outlet and is a fresh example of how shopping centers can combat the challenges posed by the forbidding retail apocalypse in the United States.

Sleep Number, Gameworks, Wheel Works, and Meet Fresh are opening during 2020, according to Westfield Oakridge, one of the Bay Area’s major regional shopping centers. Last November, Living Spaces opened a 100,000-square-foot-plus store at the site of the old Sears outlet.

“You often hear about the demise of retail, but many of the large malls in the Bay Area seem to be doing very well, as evidenced by all the investment in them,” Imwalle said. “Santana Row, Valley Fair, Oakridge, Stanford are all examples of that.”