Long-closed San Jose store site is bought in hopeful sign for property

SAN JOSE — A long-shuttered store property at a high-profile spot in San Jose has been bought by a veteran Bay Area developer in a hopeful sign the site could land a new use.

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Dollinger Properties, acting through an affiliate, has bought a former Orchard Supply Hardware store site in south San Jose, documents filed on July 1 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.

The purchase price was $7.3 million, according to the real estate records.

The just-bought site is at 5651 Cottle Road in south San Jose in a neighborhood that includes many residential properties, numerous retail and restaurant sites, and medical complexes.

Redwood City-based Dollinger Properties bought the Orchard Supply Hardware site after an auction for the site. The number of bidders for the property wasn’t known.

The transaction raises the hope that the site of the old hardware store, which shut its doors in 2018 when Orchard Supply Hardware went out of business, could find a new mission.

The building totals 44,600 square feet, according to commercial real estate listing sites. It occupies a 4.3-acre site that includes a big surface parking lot.

Dollinger’s real estate holdings are concentrated primarily in the Bay Area, according to its website.

In the South Bay, the company’s properties consist primarily of office and research buildings, with many of these located in San Jose. Dollinger, however, also owns several retail sites in the Bay Area.

This news organization emailed Dollinger Properties with a request for comment or context regarding its purchase.

Orchard Supply Hardware was founded in 1931 as a nonprofit cooperative. Over the decades, its owners have included Sears and Lowe’s Cos., a hardware retail chain. It was under the Lowe’s ownership that Orchard Supply filed for bankruptcy that unleashed a wave of store closures.

In some instances, the shuttered Orchard Supply Hardware stores were reopened under a new brand, Outdoor Supply Hardware. The Cottle Road site was never reopened.