VTA closes purchase of San Jose's Mitchell block

The Mitchell block, a downtown San Jose parcel seen as key to redevelopment efforts, has been sold to the Valley Transportation Authority for $39.6 million.

The VTA board approved the purchase in November and the deal closed Dec. 14.

The property lies between Market and First streets and between Santa Clara and St. John streets, although it does not include the buildings that front Santa Clara Street.

Jeffrey Kuhn, spokesman for the family, confirmed that the sale closed. Kuhn is the grandson of Warren Holmes, who along with E.B. Gross owned the San Jose Hardware Co., which stood where the so-called Knight-Ridder building stands now on West San Fernando Street.

"The Holmes family has been involved heavily in San Jose since the 1880s," Kuhn says. "There is some wistfulness about selling the last of the family's properties."

The VTA plans to use the land as a staging area for the construction of the BART extension to San Jose. Ultimately the property also will have an entrance to a downtown BART station.

Real Estate Designers offers totally innovative solutions for your software development, Internet programming, real estate web design and hosting needs. Our service includes domain name registration and real estate web design. Real Estate Designers provides the complete solution including design, application development and marketing.

source: bizjournals.com