SAN JOSE — A vast San Jose ranch is on the verge of being bought by local investors in a deal that offers fresh evidence that the Bay Area real estate empire of a China-based firm is being steadily disassembled.
A preliminary deal has been reached for the purchase of Richmond Ranch, which is nestled on about 3,654 acres of pristine hills, vales and fields in southeast San Jose, according to documents filed on April 12 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
Z&L Properties, a China-based real estate and development firm with a local office in Foster City, is the current owner that has struck a deal to sell the Richmond Ranch, the county documents show.
Terrascape Ventures, a San Jose-based real estate firm whose principal executives are Tony Arreola and Mark Lazzarini, has agreed to purchase the property.
In 2017, Z&L paid $25 million to buy the ranch. As has been the case with an array of downtown San Jose properties the company owns or has developed, Z&L Properties has said little if anything about what it had planned for the huge ranch.
Terms of the potential upcoming purchase weren’t disclosed in the county records, other than the parties involved and the disclosure of the 10 parcels involved in the pending transaction.
Arreola and Lazzarini of Terrascape Ventures couldn’t be reached for comment regarding the potential property deal for Richmond Ranch.
Z&L Properties has struggled greatly with its Bay Area real estate portfolio, which is located primarily in downtown San Jose and San Francisco.
The development firm has completed just one Bay Area project, a double-tower housing highrise in downtown San Jose near San Pedro Square with roughly 640 units. Z&L has placed the two residential towers up for sale.
In 2021, Z&L Properties yielded ownership of one of its development sites, a 1.6-acre property near the corner of Terraine Street and Bassett Street. Z&L’s plans for a big residential tower at that location had stalled.
An alliance led by global developer Westbank and local developers Gary Dillabough, Arreola and Lazzarini paid $11.4 million for the choice Terraine Street parcel. The property is in a downtown district known as the North San Pedro neighborhood.
Z&L also has failed to begin construction on a housing highrise project at an old Greyhound Station at 70 South Almaden Avenue in downtown San Jose. Recently, the company placed that property up for sale.
The real estate firm has been accused of neglecting the site of a historic church at 43 East St. James Street in downtown San Jose. At one point, Z&L had proposed the development of two housing highrises that would have flanked the old church, which is protected from the elements only by the tatters of a crudely fastened tarp.
City officials say they have been attempting for months to orchestrate a re-covering of the church, which is next to a weed-choked field.
The Richmond Ranch that is close to being purchased has been described as a property where people could experience a lifestyle akin to the rural California of the 19th Century, according to a brochure circulated in 2017 by The Chickering Co. Inc., a real estate brokerage that specializes in ranch and recreational properties.
For decades, the ranch was owned by members of the Richmond family. The Richmond Ranch parcels were bought in the 1920s and 1930s by Edmund Richmond, one of the principal owners of San Jose-based Richmond-Chase Co., which became one of the nation’s largest canning and dried-fruit companies.
One of the ranch houses on the property dates back to 1878, the Chickering Co. brochure says.
“Rolling oak-studded hills, secluded meadows and views of Mount Hamilton, San Jose and the Bay Area provide the perfect setting for hiking, biking, horseback riding, hunting, camping and connecting with a rich and unspoiled California landscape,” Chickering Co. stated in the sales brochure.
Source: www.mercurynews.com