Pulte buys Saratoga retail center approved for townhomes

A Georgia developer paid $58.4 million for a half-empty shopping center in Saratoga with approvals underway for 90 townhomes.

PulteGroup, based in Atlanta, bought Quito Village at 18764 Cox Avenue, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The seller was Sand Hill Property, based in Palo Alto.

Sand Hill, which paid $20.9 million for the retail center in 2013, filed plans for a mixed-use townhome project in January.

The 90-home project, designed by Dahlin Group, would replace Quito Village on Cox Avenue between Paseo Presada and Saratoga Avenue. It uses SB 35, a state density bonus law to streamline project approvals in cities not meeting housing goals.

“Quito Village re-imagines a dying shopping center as a thriving mixed-use townhome community,” Dahlin Group, based in Pleasanton, said in a statement.

The retail center fell into decline in 2017 when its anchor, a high-end supermarket, shut its doors. It now includes a Starbucks, restaurants and a Vision Center.

The proposed development would include 17 two-story buildings, in browns and grays, with both for-sale and rental units. An estimated 10 percent of the 90 units would be affordable for “very low-income households,” according to Dahlin Group.

The project also would include a standalone, 5,000-square-foot commercial building, city plans show.

The Saratoga purchase is the second recent residential project bought by the company once known as Pulte Homes from a Silicon Valley developer.

Two weeks ago, Pulte paid $52 million for a 5-acre property at 1139 Karlstad Avenue in Sunnyvale, where The Sobrato Organization had won city approval to build 135 townhomes. The deal came out to $385,000 per approved unit.

Pulte is also building 356 townhomes and condos in nearby Santa Clara and San Jose, most of them on a mobile home park being redeveloped into rentals and for-sale units.

The total purchase by the nation’s No. 3 homebuilder for both the Saratoga and Sunnyvale properties was $105.8 million.

— Dana Bartholomew

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