A commercial truck company based in San Jose is taking VTA to court, two years after the public transit agency forced the business to move off a site slated for use in the planned BART extension project through Silicon Valley.
Monarch Truck Center, a full service medium duty truck dealership, had operated at 195 N. 30th St. for 35 years until VTA used eminent domain to acquire the property in 2024. Now, the company’s executives argue VTA has not provided adequate compensation for the financial hit the forced move dealt their business. After a failed attempt at mediation, the case is headed to a March 9 jury trial.
“We’re not trying to stand in the way of progress,” Monarch Truck Center President Nicole Guetersloh told San José Spotlight. “It’s just we’d also like to stay around.”
VTA officials declined to comment, citing internal policies against discussing ongoing litigation.
Court documents show Honco Investment Company owned Monarch’s former location, just south of the East Julian Street exit from Highway 101. As of August, VTA had already reached settlement agreements with Honco and three other businesses that operated on the 9.4-acre industrial parcel.
Government agencies may use eminent domain to force property owners to sell land needed for public projects, though state and federal laws also require just compensation for those impacted, including businesses that must relocate. However, VTA valued Monarch’s relevant losses at $0, according to Glenn Block, an attorney representing Monarch.
“Government agencies have an obligation to seek justice or fairness rather than winning,” Block told San José Spotlight. “I think in this case, the VTA position is more about winning and trying to avoid fair compensation.”
It’s not the first time a San Jose business displaced by the BART expansion has claimed VTA refused to negotiate terms. Several property owners caught in the path of tunneling work along Santa Clara Street raised similar concerns with San José Spotlight as they faced condemnation in 2023.
Guetersloh, whose father founded Monarch in 1976, said VTA served the company an eminent domain notice in December 2020. It alerted occupants the land would soon be redeveloped for a BART station at 28th Street, along with related infrastructure.
VTA gave Monarch one year to move, Guetersloh said. But such a rapid relocation, she said, would have been impossible given her business’s complex operations. In addition to sales of trucks and parts, Monarch, which employs dozens of workers, offers repair and leasing services and also maintains a 300-vehicle fleet of rental trucks.
Monarch Truck Center President Nicole Guetersloh said the company’s new location at 1015 Timothy Drive is not big enough to accommodate her company’s operations. Photo by Keith Menconi.
While the company managed to extend its relocation deadline, ultimately departing in April 2024, Guetersloh said the intense time pressure forced her team to settle for a new spot that falls far short of their needs.
The 30th Street location allowed Monarch to spread out across five acres, and provided easy road access to Highway 101. But its new site at 1015 Timothy Drive is significantly smaller, lacks parking and, critically, does not have an outdoor vehicle yard. As a result, the company now must lease another location several blocks away to store its inventory, adding significant logistical hurdles to daily operations.
Meanwhile, the current address is far less visible, Guetersloh said, making it more difficult to attract customers.
“We went from a location where we had hundreds of thousands of people driving by every day to now we’re in a hidden little location where you have a hard time finding us,” she said. “Some people think we went out of business altogether.”
Guetersloh said the challenges posed by the move have led to a decline in revenue due to a drop in sales and increased operating costs. She declined to provide company financials.
Two years after Monarch’s move, no development is yet visible at the vacated property.
The case is the latest legal fight related to VTA’s effort to acquire land for the $12.2 billion, six-mile BART extension project that will add another four stations and bring BART service into downtown San Jose and Santa Clara. The extended line is projected to open in 2036.
Meanwhile, VTA could be headed toward another jury trial in the coming months over a downtown property it claimed in 2022 as part of plans to create a downtown San Jose BART station, the Mercury News reported.
Guetersloh, whose company patronizes a number of other small local vendors and businesses, said she’s seen firsthand the far reaching economic ripple effects that can follow from eminent domain claims.
“There’s so many businesses that can’t do what I’ve done. They’re not prepared,” she said. “So many people don’t realize until it happens to them — this goes on a lot.”
Contact Keith Menconi at [email protected] or @KeithMenconi on X.