SAN JOSE — A new site of blight has popped up at a property in west San Jose, an indication that the city’s problems with eyesores extend well beyond the municipality’s downtown district.
City officials have decided to intensify their focus on a property at 335 South Winchester Blvd. in San Jose, where multiple development projects have been proposed.
Discarded furniture, other items and debris are present at 335 South Winchester Boulevard in west San Jose, as seen on May 5, 2026. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)
San Jose code enforcement officers have become alarmed about blight at several properties in the city’s downtown.
In some instances, the properties have been neglected for years without being fully cleaned up to the point where they would no longer pose a nuisance for neighbors.
Vacant former restaurant property at 335 South Winchester Boulevard in west San Jose, seen on May 5, 2026. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)
The concerns have arrived in a year of high-profile sports events such as the Super Bowl, the soccer World Cup, and the men’s college basketball tournament.
One of the current sites of blight that have landed on San Jose’s radar is the 335 South Winchester property, whose owner has been seeking to bulldoze and redevelop the former Khanh’s Restaurant, which closed at that location in 2021.
Paul Yu, who owns the property through an affiliate, proposed an office building on the site a few years ago. In 2024, Yu switched gears to a housing development.
Neither project broke ground.
This week, the site remained forlorn and fenced off. A chair, pottery, and considerable debris were left unattended next to the empty and boarded-up building. A cyclone fence was in place along part of the property’s perimeter.
At a hearing in March, a San Jose code enforcement officer presented a report regarding his inspection of the property on South Winchester. Code enforcement inspector Manuel Duarte declared that blight still haunted the property as of March 12.
“Current conditions contained blighted conditions, overgrown vegetation, graffiti, and the presence of solid waste,” according to minutes about the meeting.
The inspector also noted that the site’s owner has vowed to demolish the building, thereby ending the blight woes.
“The subject property has an active building permit for the demolition of the building that was issued on Dec. 10, 2025,” the minutes of the meeting stated. “The demolition of the building has not started.”
The property’s owner declared at the meeting that he is anxious to bulldoze the building.
“Yu stated he encountered difficulty in obtaining a demolition permit,” minutes of the March 12 meeting show.
At least one resident of the area reported to the appeals hearing board that the property remains a site of blight.
“Neighbor Chris Giangreco noted that the subject property continues to be a blight problem and an attractive nuisance,” the meeting minutes stated.