Sol San Jose Owner Buys Stalled Hotel Project for $27.6M

Sol San Jose Owner has paid $27.6 million for a property in North San Jose approved for a 200-room hotel after acquiring a delinquent loan.

The South Korea-based investor acquired the 3.2-acre lot at 7 Topgolf Drive in the Alviso district during a brief foreclosure auction, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The sale came after Sol San Jose took over the delinquent loan for $26.4 million this month to South Korea-based hotel planner Mirae-San Jose.

Pine Tree Specialized Private Investment Trust and KEB Hana Bank, which financed the vacant lot, had filed a default notice and began to foreclose on the loan. Sol San Jose was assigned ownership of the mortgage and now owns the land after the public auction.

Mirae-San Jose bought the property in 2019 for $22.5 million, according to SFRegistry. That year, it won approval for the hotel project, which then stalled during the pandemic.

The proposed hotel, to include a 15,400-square-foot retail building, was eyed for development by Shilla Stay, an affiliate of Samsung Group, which had proposed the four-story hotel.

The gray and white hotel, designed by Corbel Architects, has banks of large vertical windows and a porte cochere over the lobby driveway, which leads past the entrance to an underground garage, according to a rendering.

The boomerang-shaped site, north of Highway 237 and the Guadalupe River, sits next to the Topgolf San Jose driving range.

Sol San Jose, based in Seoul, is now in a position to develop the hotel.

It would benefit from Topgolf, which opened in 2021 and has been a steady draw as an entertainment, sports and dining center, according to the Mercury News.

The Dallas-based Topgolf operates high-tech driving ranges that allow people to hit golf balls equipped with microchips that record distance and accuracy. The complexes offer watering holes and dining in combination with the driving range.

— Dana Bartholomew