Google widens downtown San Jose transit village property purchases

SAN JOSE — Google has scooped up several more downtown San Jose properties, in a deal that has widened the scope of the sites the search giant seeks for its proposed transit village near the Diridon train station.

The company bought properties that front on Royal Avenue and Bird Avenue and are across the street from the site of a shuttered Orchard Supply Hardware Center.

Google spent $4.1 million to acquire the four parcels, which it bought from a San Jose-based group called Ends in E, according to Santa Clara County property documents that were filed March 14.

The most recent transaction suggests that Google is eyeing a larger footprint for its transit village than initially anticipated. The latest purchases would give Google a frontage on Bird Avenue and are near a busy interchange of Interstate 280.

Mountain View-based Google, either directly or through a partnership with development ally Trammell Crow, began buying properties in December 2016 when it spent $55 million for an old telephone company building on South Montgomery Street.

Including the most recent acquisition, Google-linked affiliates have spent at least $319.5 million purchasing an array of sites in downtown San Jose that are expected to provided the land for Google’s planned transit village.

The properties bought by Google in recent years include industrial sites, commercial properties, office buildings, residences and vacant lots.

Google also has paid $69.1 million to purchase numerous properties owned by the city and other government agencies. In addition, the company has options or agreements to purchase more city properties, including the big surface parking lots next to the SAP entertainment and sports center.

Just prior to the most recent purchase, Google spent $5.3 million to acquire the land beneath, and the buildings used by, the now-closed Kearney Pattern Works, which has shut its doors after a century of manufacturing steel forms and patterns.

The transit-oriented community envisioned by Google would consist of a complex of office buildings, homes, restaurants, shops and open spaces where 25,000 could work, including 15,000 to 20,000 employees of the tech titan.

The area of the Diridon station is becoming more attractive because the rail node is expected to gain a BART connection and already is a hub for links to light rail, Caltrain, the Capitol Corridor, ACE Train and Amtrak.