Sand Hill Property buys auto dealership in Los Gatos for $27M

Purchase of Moore GMC adds to Whole Foods Market development site

Sand Hill Property founders Peter and Susanna Pau along with an aerial view of 15600 and 15650 Los Gatos Boulevard in Los Gatos (Getty, Sand Hill Property, Google Maps)

Sand Hill Property founders Peter and Susanna Pau along with an aerial view of 15600 and 15650 Los Gatos Boulevard in Los Gatos (Getty, Sand Hill Property, Google Maps)

Sand Hill Property has bought a car dealership in Los Gatos to amass a 7.4-acre swath that includes plans for a Whole Foods Market.

An affiliate of the Palo Alto-based developer paid $26.5 million for the Moore GMC auto dealership at 15480 and 15500 Los Gatos Boulevard, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The two parcels contain 4.5 acres.

That adds to the 2.9 acres Sand Hill bought next door in 2021 for $15.1 million at 15600 and 15650 Los Gatos Boulevard. The site includes plans for a 40,200-square-foot Whole Foods, expected to open late next year.

“We are currently working on building permits and expect a building submittal in July,” Steve Lynch, director of planning and entitlements at Sand Hill, told the Mercury News.

He said there have been no plans submitted for the 72-year-old car dealer site, and that Moore GMC, also known as Moore Buick GMC, would continue operations. 

Whole Foods is slated to relocate from a nearby market at 15980 Los Gatos Boulevard, which is half the size of the proposed market next to Moore GMC.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

“The new store would be a great location for Whole Foods, 100 percent,” David Taxin, a partner with Meacham/Oppenheimer, a commercial real estate firm, told the newspaper.

Sand Hill Property, founded by Peter and Susanna Pau in 1988, has developed more than 65 projects with 20 million square feet across Silicon Valley, from stand-alone stores to multi-use city centers, according to its website.

Last July, the firm paid $10 million for a renovated building in Downtown Palo Alto occupied by an outgoing Restoration Hardware store. Last June, it won approval to redevelop a shopping center into an urban village of nearly 1,000 homes in southwest San Jose.

Read more

Sand Hill is also spending $4 billion to redevelop a former mall in Cupertino into a retail village of 2,400 homes, half of them affordable, with nearly 2 million square feet of offices, labs, shops and restaurants.

— Dana Bartholomew