SAN JOSE — The owner of a downtown San Jose site of blight faces fines and penalties — after it was on the city’s radar as a problem property and a public nuisance for more than six years.

The housing development site is at 70 South Almaden Avenue, the location of a former Greyhound bus terminal and a property where hundreds of housing units have been proposed — but never built.

A tent is set up outside 70 South Almaden Avenue, a former Greyhound bus terminal in downtown San Jose, seen on Feb. 25, 2025. (City of San Jose)
70 South Almaden Avenue, a former Greyhound bus terminal in downtown San Jose, seen on Feb. 5, 2025. Graffiti covers a sign for a comedy club. (City of San Jose)

Full Standard Properties, an affiliate of China-based real estate firm Z&L Properties, is in default on a $19.5 million loan that Shanghai Commercial Bank provided to the affiliate in 2019.

The most recent challenges to face the former Greyhound bus property at 70 South Almaden have arrived in the form of a series of recommendations by San Jose city code compliance officers due to blighted conditions at the property.

70 South Almaden Avenue, an abandoned Greyhound bus terminal in downtown San Jose, seen on Feb. 5. (City of San Jose)

“The vacant property is located on a frequently traveled downtown street and is highly visible,” a city code enforcement report states. “The unmaintained property constitutes an attraction to unauthorized or other persons, creates a condition of accessibility to the vacant property and constitutes an ongoing attractive nuisance.”

San Jose officials were aware of the 70 South Alamen property’s dilapidation as early as September 2018, city documents show.

“From November of 2018 through December of 2024, the Subject Property was monitored for blight as part of the Neglected Vacant Building and Storefronts Monitoring Program,” the city report states. “During this period, code enforcement observed graffiti present on the structure for extended amounts of time.”

This means that it’s taken more than six years for the property to reach the point at which the city aims to take some definitive action against the site’s owner.

“The Greyhound property has been an eyesore for way too many years,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy and a land-use consultant. “The city of San Jose needs to hold delinquent property owners accountable.”

The city’s Appeals Hearing Board has scheduled a meeting to review the blight problems and possibly order enforcement action.

The loan default raises the specter that Shanghai Commercial Bank might employ a foreclosure proceeding to auction off the property or take ownership of the site.

Full Standard Properties, the Z&L affiliate, never broke ground on a city-approved housing tower totaling 708 units at the shuttered Greyhound bus depot.

Z&L Properties burst on the scene several years ago with grand plans to develop a series of housing towers in downtown San Jose. City planners and politicians embraced the proposals and approved the downtown residential towers.

So far, the affiliates of Z&L’s Properties have broken ground on just one project, a double-tower housing highrise at 188 West St. James Street that isn’t fully complete. The residential highrise complex is also in default on its loan and faces foreclosure.

Among the struggling Z&L projects:

— 188 West St. James St.: A lender filed a notice of default for a delinquent $264 million construction loan. The double-tower residential complex, which totals more than 600 units, is the only San Jose project that Z&L ever constructed.

— 43 East St. James St.: Z&L agreed to protect and renovate an old church at this site next to St. James Park, but instead has neglected the historic building and allowed it to fall into disrepair. Z&L has also failed to develop housing towers on the site, which has become blighted.

— Terraine Street and Bassett Street: Z&L had proposed a large housing development but never broke ground. Z&L eventually sold the property near San Pedro Square to a real estate alliance of global developer Westbank and Bay Area developers Gary Dillabough, Tony Arreola and Mark Lazzarini.

— In 2017, a Z&L affiliate paid $25 million for the vast 3,654-acre Richmond Ranch in southeast San Jose. In January 2024, the Z&L affiliate sold it for $16 million through an intricate plan to eventually enable the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency and the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department to buy the property. Z&L never disclosed its game plan for owning it.

As for the Greyhound terminal property on South Almaden, the city demanded that the property owner pay an administrative penalty of $10,000 by June 15 of this year.

If the property owner fails to comply, the owner will be obliged to pay additional penalties of $1,000 a day, up to a maximum amount of $100,000.

It’s also possible the owner might have to pay up to $2,500 a day until the problems are remedied.

“When can we expect a more robust enforcement action to take place?” Staedler said. “The downtown stakeholders deserve better.”