Church in Google downtown San Jose transit village area buys new site

SAN JOSE — A long-established church that struck a deal to sell a downtown San Jose site to Google has now bought a property in north San Jose, clearing a path for the church to relocate.

Templo La Hermosa of The Assemblies of God has bought a 36-year-old building on Trade Zone Boulevard in north San Jose in a deal that was completed on May 22, Santa Clara County public documents show.

This transaction comes following  an agreement, revealed through an option deal between Google and the church, that was filed with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office in July 2018.

The option disclosed that Templo La Hermosa has agreed to sell its church property at 56 S. Montgomery St. in San Jose to a development partnership headed by Google.

That option didn’t reveal how much Google and its development partner Trammell Crow had agreed to pay Templo La Hermosa to buy the downtown church site, which is across the street from the Diridon train station in downtown San Jose.

Rev. Erasmo Zuniga, pastor of Templo La Hermosa, in a previous interview with this news organization, estimated it would cost $6 million to $7 million to move the church, including acquiring a new property and constructing a new church for the congregation of 100.

Zuniga didn’t immediately respond to a request to discuss the transactions and future relocation of the church. Templo La Hermosa has provided church services for 70 years at the Montgomery Street site, Zuniga said previously.

Tempo La Hermosa paid slightly below $7.8 million — in cash — for the Trade Zone Boulevard property, the county documents show. The property features a 29,000-square-foot, one-story building constructed in 1983.

At one point in 2018, the parcel was up for sale for $8.5 million, according to a commercial property listing on the LoopNet site.

In downtown San Jose, Google has proposed the development of a transit-oriented community of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, and parks near the Diridon train depot where 25,000 people could work, including 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees.

The train station area is deemed attractive by Google and numerous other enterprises because the transit hub, already served by Caltrain, the Capitol Corridor, ACE Train, Amtrak, and light rail, is also slated to be a BART stop and even a station for a high-speed rail line.