VTA to seize buildings in Downtown San Jose for BART station

A South Bay transit agency is about to seize two buildings in Downtown San Jose to make way for a new BART station.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has approved a “resolution of necessity” to seize two mixed-use buildings at 91 and 97 East Santa Clara Street for a BART rail line beneath Downtown, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The unanimous vote clears the way for the transit agency to negotiate with property owners and their commercial and residential tenants before the buildings are bulldozed to make way for BART.

Tenants that could be displaced include Enso Bar and Nightclub, Mexico Bakery and a 3rd and Bourbon restaurant. Residents who rent eight apartments above the ground-floor businesses would also be forced to find new homes.

The VTA is seeking the buildings and a parking lot next door to build ventilation and emergency exits for BART’s Downtown San Jose Station.

“We know that we are affecting people and their livelihoods,” Ron Golem, VTA’s director of real estate and transit-oriented development, said during a presentation ahead of the vote to approve the seizures.

Business owners, however, claim the transit agency has failed to be transparent about the eminent domain process.

“I’m very disappointed with this decision,” Miriam Jalil, a principal executive with Goldrock Holdings, owner of the two properties, told the Mercury News after the vote. “I am disappointed in the process and the lack of transparency and fairness.

“We expect fairness from government officials and we did not receive that.”

Jalil claims the VTA is using inaccurate valuations for properties needed for BART’s Downtown San Jose station. She also asserts that VTA miscalculations created a flawed foundation for an eminent domain proceeding so the transit agency can grab the properties.

She and some of her tenants say it would be easier for the VTA to use parking lots between her buildings and a pair of office towers on the same block for the emergency access and ventilation facilities.

If VTA used the lots, she said, the transit agency wouldn’t have to flatten her properties and evict her tenants.

Jalil says she has documents that show the transit agency has given preferential treatment in property values to the real estate investment firm that owns the office towers next door at 75 East Santa Clara and 4 North Second streets, as well as surface lots next to the highrises.

VTA officials, however, counter that moving the emergency access and ventilation facilities for the BART station would require a new environmental review that could add one to two years to a project already beleaguered by rising costs and delays.

The delays could add $200 million to the cost of the BART project, Golem warned. He said the VTA will do all it can to help property owners and tenants when they must exit the buildings.

“We really do make an effort to beat the bushes” to help businesses find new locations when they are displaced by transit projects, Golem said.

In June, the VTA filed suit to acquire a site targeted for a 200-unit housing development at 17-25 East Santa Clara Street for the proposed Downtown San Jose BART stop near First and Santa Clara streets. In December 2021, VTA filed another eminent domain lawsuit aimed at obtaining an adjacent property at 29-31 East Santa Clara Street.

The agency plans to extend the heavy rail line, which now ends in North San Jose, into Downtown and on to Santa Clara.

— Dana Bartholomew

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