SAN JOSE — The empty San Jose site of a high school that had abruptly shut its doors is poised to gain new life as a community services hub following a property deal by a busy South Bay real estate executive.
The property, located at 1402 Monterey Road just south of downtown San Jose, is now under the ownership of a nonprofit affiliate controlled by Peter Pau, an entrepreneur whose projects include the creation of a new Cupertino neighborhood that would replace a moribund mall.
The Pau-led entity paid $12 million to buy a ground lease that gives the nonprofit control of the property, documents filed on Aug. 20 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show. CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, arranged the deal, legal filings show.
“We have our foundation. It acquires real properties from time to time, to be given to groups to use for various purposes,” Pau said in comments he emailed to this news organization.
The site features a 35-classroom educational property that is located on 3.4 acres at the corner of Monterey Road and Alma Avenue, documents on file in Santa Clara County Superior Court show.
“The property sits at an important corner on Monterey Road, and putting it back into productive use is important to the vitality of the surrounding area,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.
Low-income housing, transitional housing, churches and theaters are some of the uses the Pau foundation supports, said Pau, who is co-founder and principal executive of Sand Hill Property Co.
“In this case, the school building will be turned into a community center,” Pau said. Erik Schoennauer, a San Jose-based land-use consultant, represented Pau in successful efforts to rezone the site to accommodate new community service uses.
Southern Lumber launched operations at the Monterey Road location in 1910 but shut the lumberyard in 2015, ending more than a century of the company’s business at that site.
Downtown College Prep opened its high school in 2017 but ceased operations in June 2025 due to financial struggles and slumping enrollment.
San Jose Unified School District owns the land beneath the structures and parking lot and sold the ground lease to the Pau nonprofit. The ground lease expires in 2067, public legal filings show.
The two structures on the site consist of a main education building that totals 76,800 square feet and a gymnasium and multi-purpose building that total 9,900 square feet, according to the court records.
In 2025, Downtown College Prep defaulted on $34 million in municipal bonds, a delinquency that triggered a lawsuit by the bondholders.
The litigation, filed on behalf of holders of charter school revenue bonds issued by the California School Finance Authority, led to the appointment of a receiver to find a buyer for the property.
An order issued by a Santa Clara County judge authorized the receiver to give credits to the Pau-led nonprofit. The credits amounted to roughly $405,300 for an array of endeavors to remediate deficiencies on the property.
The credits include $195,500 to fix the gym roof; $40,100 to mend the parking lot; $71,800 to repair the exterior walls; $15,600 to replace a rooftop unit; $32,300 for contingencies; and $50,000 for an environmental reserve, court papers state.
“The reuse as a community service facility could bring renewed activity and investment to a site that has long served the community,” Staedler said. “I am encouraged that the property may once again contribute to the neighborhood.”