Travis Kalanick’s new real estate venture has picked up a commercial building in downtown San Jose, although for what remains unclear.
City Storage Systems, the firm that the former Uber CEO took over earlier this year, paid $7.3 million for a three-story building in the city’s historic core in late November, according to the Mercury News.
CSS buys up distressed assets and repositions them to cater to digital-age businesses. In Los Angeles, the company created a subsidiary, CloudKitchens, that built a kitchen that it rents to delivery-only restaurants. It also helps with marketing and delivery services. With CloudRetail, CSS wants to do the same for e-commerce retailers who need storage and other facilities but don’t need a physical storefront.
CSS’s plans for the building are unclear. The firm could make the 30,400-square-foot building into a headquarters or it could repurpose it as a CloudKitchens or CloudRetail outpost. The building sold once earlier this year for $6.5 million.
Google is planning to build its biggest campus ever just 15-minute walk away at San Jose’s Diridon Station. Google plans it to be an 8-million-square-foot “transit-focused village” with public plazas, retail, and a greenbelt.
Kalanick’s new building has been a boxing gym, furniture store, and an Odd Fellow’s hall in the past, according to the Mercury News. CSS’s purchase is the second one of the year — a company bought it for $6.5 million in June with plans to turn it into a gym. [Mercury News] – Dennis Lynch