South Bay real estate investor Do Van Tron has picked up a defunct motel in southeast San Jose, his second acquisition in the city in the last two weeks.
A group of buyers led by Van Tron paid $6.4 million for the Palm Tree Inn Motel at 2724 Monterey Road, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
Tron, based in San Jose, also obtained a $3.2 million loan from Tri Counties Bank at the same time.
The deal for the 2.4-acre site at Monterey and Umbarger roads was arranged by brokers David Taxin and Jeremy Awdish of Meacham/Oppenheimer.
“We are looking for somebody who would like to put in a new use on the property,” Taxin, a partner with the commercial real estate firm, told the Mercury News. “It could be fast food, a veterinarian hospital, (or) a gas station. It could even be industrial.”
The 26-room Palm Tree Inn, a salmon-colored motel with tiled roofs, is among many the mid-century motels that once lined Monterey Road, a major thoroughfare before Highway 101. In February 2019, a man was arrested in connection to a stabbing death inside one of its rooms.
In August 2020, Santa Clara County asked the state for $5 million to convert the motel into homeless housing as part of the state’s Project Homekey. It didn’t happen and the motel closed.
Tron’s purchase adds to his growing real estate portfolio. On Sept. 2, his affiliated real estate investment firm paid $24.8 million for the old Sears store tied to the Eastridge Center shopping mall in San Jose.
The deal for the 260,100-square-foot site included the old department store, auto service center and a large parking lot, which Tron aims to redevelop into an indoor Vietnamese market and food court.
— Dana Bartholomew
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