Blighted San Jose bus station site lands financing after owner buys it

SAN JOSE — A group that used a foreclosure to buy a key San Jose site has landed tens of millions of dollars in a loan for the blighted property, which the owners have stated they intend to develop.

The newly financed property is a former Greyhound bus station in downtown San Jose previously owned by a China-based real estate firm that lost the site through a foreclosure after failing for years to develop homes at the shuttered terminal.

The site has landed $23 million in financing from three lenders, according to documents filed on Nov. 26 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office. The property is at 60 and 70 South Almaden Ave. in San Jose.

In recent years, San Jose city officials approved a proposal by China-based real estate firm Z&L Properties to develop a 708-unit residential high-rise complex on the site.

Facing foreclosure on the loan, Z&L launched multiple court battles, including a bankruptcy filing, in a quest to hang on to the property, which experts believe is a promising development site.

RELATED: VTA hopes to fight downtown San Jose blight by bulldozing building

The Texas-based affiliate of a group that includes real estate developer Chris Jiashu Xu and business executive William Wang took ownership of the downtown San Jose site by foreclosing on a delinquent $19.5 million loan in October.

The lenders that provided the late November financing are New Era Life Insurance Co., Philadelphia Life Insurance Co., and New Era Life Insurance Co. of the Midwest, county real estate records show.

The financing amount is far less than the amount that typically would be required to finance construction of a big residential development.

However, the property’s funding also suggests that Xu, who signed for the mortgage, has the resources to attract financing from established insurance companies. The owner of the three insurers is New Era Enterprises, which was founded in 1924.

By happenstance, some of the insurance companies owned by New Era suffered a data breach that was disclosed in early 2025.

It wasn’t immediately clear what Xu’s plans are for the site. Xu has developed several large projects in the New York City area, primarily residential towers and a hotel in Queens.

The new owners stated in a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing that they were prepared to build a large residential project on the site.

“The vacant land at issue is a rotting, empty former Greyhound Station,” the lender stated in a Sept. 15 declaration it filed with the bankruptcy court. “If allowed to proceed” with a foreclosure, “the lender has the resources to develop this piece of property as originally entitled.”