SAN JOSE — A veteran real estate company has bought a site near downtown San Jose that is deemed to be a prime location for redevelopment as a modern industrial or commercial center.
Valley Oak Partners, acting through an affiliate, paid $22.3 million for five parcels near the corner of South Third Street and Keyes Street, according to documents filed on Dec. 17 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
The recently purchased sites include parcels with addresses of 1102 S. Third St. and 190 Keyes St., the county documents show.
The sellers were family trusts headed up by Louis Ryan and Josy Ryan, who as of mid-2021 were residents of Los Altos Hills, according to county records.
Valley Oak Partners has been busy buying properties lately.
In November, the real estate firm paid a combined $15.8 million for several parcels in the South Bay that it purchased from San Jose Water, a unit of SJW Group.
San Jose-based Valley Oak Partners paid cash for the properties, the property deeds show. Here’s what the development firm paid for each of the parcels that had been owned by the water company:
— San Jose. A 3.5-acre site near the corner of Montague Expressway and Pecten Court. The price was $6 million.
— Milpitas. A 0.1-acre site near the corner of Montague Expressway and Pecten Court. The price was $1.1 million.
— Campbell. A 2.2-acre site at 320 Virginia Ave. was bought for $5.65 million.
— San Jose. A 1.1-acre site near the interchange of Lawrence Expressway and Doyle Road was bought for $2.6 million.
Valley Oak was also a prime mover behind a years-long land assembly in downtown San Jose near the Diridon train station of several parcels that eventually were bought by Boston Properties and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Boston Properties intends to begin construction as soon as this year on a tech mega campus called Platform 16 at the site near Julian Street and Autumn Parkway that when complete would total 1.1 million square feet.
In the most recent deal, the San Jose site at the corner of South Third Street and Keyes Street that Valley Oak bought is deemed by property experts to be suitable for an array of uses.
Amazon’s interest in this section of San Jose underscores the potential of the sites bought by Valley Oak Partners.
In 2020, less than a mile away from the Valley Oak-bought property, Amazon.com Services, a delivery and commerce unit of the high-tech behemoth, purchased a site where a huge industrial center has been proposed.
The Amazon unit paid $59.3 million for a 17.8-acre site at 1605 S. Seventh St., documents filed with the county show.
The Valley Oaks-purchased site at Third and Keyes streets totals 6.3 acres, according to assessment and planning records.
Property experts believe the sites that Valley Oaks bought last month in San Jose could be suitable for multiple uses because of its size and location.
“The brick building at Third and Keyes Street is a solid structure,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.
The structure has both short-term and long-term value, Staedler opined.
“This is a great immediate reuse opportunity with a long-term redevelopment potential,” Staedler said.
Buildings devoted to industrial, logistics, or commercial operations could be built on the 1102 S. Third St. property.
“The (San Jose) redevelopment agency once studied this site as an arts incubator space,” Staedler said.
