San Jose — Despite the legal quest for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority to occupy the site, downtown San Jose residential skyscrapers are still actively planned, developers say.
Roygbiv Real Estate Development plans to build a 26-story residential tower called the Eterna Tower, E. There are 200 homes in two compartments on 17-31 of Santa Clara St. The unit is expected to include dozens of affordable homes.
VTA seeks to take ownership of the parcels as part of a huge project to extend BART to the Little Portugal area of San Jose, downtown San Jose, and Diridon Station using a process called land expropriation.
Loida Kirkley, Principal Executive of Roygbiv Real Estate Development, said, “I disagree with VTA’s conclusion that land expropriation must be submitted” for the properties required for the tower.
The company’s legal team has already negotiated and discussed with VTA regarding the project site.
Affiliates led by Kirkley own one parcel that VTA is trying to seize at the location, E. Santa Clara St with addresses 17 and 25. In 2020, Roygbiv Real Estate Development paid $ 3.4 million to buy the property.
The adjacent parcels are owned by a group operated as ZHanna LLC with addresses 29 and 31 E. Santa Clara St. The individual Lars Fuller is the existing mortgage provider for the property.
Kirkley’s group also proposed the development of a residential tower, just around the corner of North Second Street, to provide affordable housing for the elderly.
Transport officials said in court documents that parcels, along with downtown and other assets east of downtown, are an important place the authorities need for BART expansion.
“VTA seeks to acquire assets for the development, construction, operation and maintenance of VTA’s BART Silicon Valley Phase 2 project,” the agency filed with a court relating to land expropriation on East Santa Clara Street. I mentioned in the paperwork.
VTA claims that the expansion itself is an important link in the expansion of BART across the region.
By 2040, VTA estimates that an estimated 54,600 people will be on the extension section.
In an April 2022 report, DCI engineers evaluated the possibility of building a residential tower next to the entrance to downtown San Jose BART on East Santa Clara Street.
The engineering company pointed out that it would develop hotels and homes on top of Hollywood transit stations. The hotel was built in conjunction with the San Francisco transit extension, with a transit tower built on top of the existing Seattle subway line.
“DCI engineers work closely with BART and other public agencies to implement new BART transits through close coordination and collaboration, implementation of best practices from previous projects with similar levels of complexity, and detailed design of structural systems. We are confident that we will build the Eterna Tower in combination with the entrance to the station, which can be achieved, “the engineering company said in a report.
Kirkley believes that developing more homes next to BART Station could be a key factor in the success of the railway line.
“This is a very much needed home,” Kirkley said. “VTA works as if we wanted a stand-alone station without connecting to a labor home.”