Restoration Hardware, 26 N. Santa Cruz Ave. in Los Gatos. Two investment groups, including a veteran Bay Area construction company, have bought retail properties on the same block in one of the Bay Area’s hottest commercial spots, downtown Los Gatos.
LOS GATOS — Two investment groups, including a veteran Bay Area construction company, have bought retail properties on the same block in one of the Bay Area’s hottest commercial spots, downtown Los Gatos.
The deals suggest that investors continue to scramble to buy choice Bay Area properties that could prosper even after the economic tsunami unleashed by the coronavirus recedes and reveals survivors.
Both properties are located on North Santa Cruz Avenue a few doors away from each other in downtown Los Gatos.
Milpitas-based Devcon Construction, one of the Bay Area’s biggest general contractors, bought one site. An investment group based in the Sierra foothills town of El Dorado Hills that’s led by Kenneth Ryan Koch bought the other property.
Adding to the interest in Los Gatos: Chicago-based Oxford Capital Group has just bought Hotel Los Gatos, a boutique hotel a few blocks away in the city’s downtown district.
Milpitas-based Devcon paid $11.2 million for a retail building at 26 N. Santa Cruz Blvd. in Los Gatos, Santa Clara County public documents filed on Dec. 11 show. The building’s tenant is Restoration Hardware.
The Koch group paid $14 million for a retail building at 2 N. Santa Cruz Blvd, according to property records filed on Oct. 22. An internet service provider is listed as having a location in the building.
“This is a prime retail space in the heart of Los Gatos,” according to a prior listing for the building that was distributed by CBRE, a commercial real estate firm.
In the same stretch of North Santa Cruz Avenue where the just-bought properties are located: an Apple retail store, Orens Hummus, Pizza My Heart, Great Bear Coffee, The Pastaria & Market, Andale Taqueria, and Gardino’s Ristorante Italiano.
The 2 N. Santa Cruz site is known as The Park Vista building, according to a post on the LoopNet commercial property listing site. It was constructed in 1932.
“The property was previously a bank that maintains some of its historic features,” the LoopNet post stated.
About a half-mile away from the properties on North Santa Cruz, Oxford Capital bought Hotel Los Gatos, a 72-room lodging at 210 E. Main St., for $21.1 million on Dec. 10, according to public records.
All of these deals indicate that investors remain confident about the future of commercial real estate in Silicon Valley, including markets such as Los Gatos.
