SAN JOSE — A quest to revive two previously foreclosed San Jose housing towers has reached a key stage with the first sale of one of the condominiums in the landmark high-rises.
The selling effort has begun for condos at 188 W. St. James, a 640-unit residential tower complex in downtown San Jose. The residential hub consists of a 22-floor eastern tower with 337 units and a 20-floor western tower with 303 units.
Activity and gathering areas for the two housing towers at 188 West St. James Street in downtown San Jose, concept image. (Steinberg Hart)
Machine Investment Group, the principal owner of the residential hub at 188 W. St. James St., is seeking to sell all of the condos in the housing complex.
The first condo in the current sales campaign was sold for just under $1.19 million, documents filed on May 15 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.
Machine Investment and property operator Centurion Real Estate Partners are scouting for buyers for all of the condos. The two are focusing initially on selling condos in the western tower at the corner of West St. James and Terraine Street.
As of February, starting prices for the units were $429,000 for studios, $600,000 for one-bedroom units, $900,000 for two-bedroom units, and $1.8 million for penthouses, according to a marketing flyer.
The owner and its partner in the project believe the towers can entice people, considering what they perceive as the current market conditions in the South Bay.
Machine Investment has budgeted $30 million on wide-ranging upgrades to prepare the towers for occupants, according to John Tashjian, managing partner with Centurion Real Estate.
That overall figure includes about $6 million that was budgeted for the amenities, pool and lobby sections of the towers.
The attempt to create a viable and vibrant residential hub arrives after years of neglect and fumbled strategies by the prior owner, an affiliate of China-based real estate firm Z&L Properties.
Z&L Properties presided over a string of financial, construction, development and legal setbacks that lingered over an eight-year stretch.
Delinquent financing, lawsuits, project delays, construction blunders and defects, evidence that some workers were forced to live in an East Bay warehouse, allegations of slave labor and a death haunted the property while Z&L owned it.
Z&L also bungled its marketing efforts. It sold some units, then switched to rentals for other condos.
This zigzag course left behind a blend of tenants and owners in the western tower, while the eastern tower remained empty.
Eventually, Z&L ran out of money for the towers and halted work on the residential complex, leaving it forlorn and mostly empty.
An affiliate of Machine Investment took ownership through a speedy foreclosure in June 2025 that valued the property at $181.9 million. The foreclosure was the result of Z&L’s default on a $330 million construction loan.
The residential hub’s ownership group is betting the property can contribute to downtown San Jose’s vibrancy.
“This is a new chapter for downtown San Jose,” Tashjian said during the February interview.