neighborhood group appealed<\/a> the San Jose planning staff\u2019s decision. The City Council will now decide on The Gifford\u2019s fate.<\/p>\nCouncilmember Anthony Tordillos said during a June 16 City Council meeting that the deal could help the city achieve its housing goals. He said San Jose agreed to buy the building for 60% less than what Urban Catalyst paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a slam dunk for the city,\u201d Tordillos said, emphasizing San Jose in 2025 hit only 33% of its targeted mandate for the creation of new housing units. \u201cWe need all the housing we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Urban Catalyst bought the Knox-Goodrich building for $9.1 million in 2019 and city officials are already planning how to make use of the historic building.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce acquired, staff will activate the ground-floor storefront in the historic Knox-Goodrich building with a cultural-serving or commercial use,\u201d city staffers stated.<\/p>\n
The Knox-Goodrich building has been empty since Lido Nightclub shut its doors in 2019. Urban Catalyst conducted some preliminary construction at the property.<\/p>\n
The COVID-19 outbreak, collapse in demand for new office space, and a sour environment for financing new commercial real estate prompted Urban Catalyst to suspend development, according to a staff memo.<\/p>\n
The combination of the city\u2019s purchase of the historic building and development of The Gifford apartment project could help fuel an upswing in activity downtown, San Jose officials said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gifford, along with Urban Catalyst\u2019s Icon-Echo Apartments, Gateway Residential Tower by CORE Developers, and the Bank of Italy conversion to residential units by Westbank, will spur a revitalization\u201d in downtown San Jose, city staffers wrote in a memo to the city council.<\/p>\n
The Knox-Goodrich building totals roughly 11,200 square feet. The building is associated with Sarah Knox-Goodrich, who commissioned the building in the 19th century and was an advocate for women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cConstructed in 1889, the stone-and-brick building is a rare and significant example of Romanesque Revival commercial architecture in downtown San Jose and reflects the city\u2019s late-19th-century commercial development style,\u201d city staffers wrote.<\/p>\n
At one point, Valbridge Property Advisors appraised the building at $2.78 million. Urban Catalyst, however, declined an offer at that price, documents show.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s purchase means it now owns a choice site next to the emerging Fountain Alley area in the historic district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recommended acquisition allows the city to act opportunistically to acquire a very well-situated and historically prominent parcel of land downtown while supporting near-term housing production and ground-floor commercial activation to advance the area\u2019s revitalization,\u201d said the staff report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 The city of San Jose officially completed its multimillion-dollar purchase of a historic downtown building…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[170736,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-429028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-https-www-mercurynews-com-2026-07-15-san-jose-home-build-economy-property-apartment-develop-real-estate","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}