Google salvages and adapts older parts of downtown San Jose village

SAN JOSE — Google has pushed ahead with efforts to salvage parts of older buildings as well as rescue complete historic structures that are within the footprint of the search giant’s downtown San Jose transit village.

The tech titan has offered the public pieces of the now-shuttered Patty’s Inn, whose roots as a downtown San Jose watering hole date back to the Great Depression.

Google also offered up for salvage sections of the former Sunlite Bakery Bread Depot building and will rescue the ornate entryway to the old structure, preserving the entrance elsewhere in the company’s project footprint.

Across the street from the bakery site, the old Hellwig Iron Works at 150 South Montgomery Street is expected to be preserved and creatively reused as a key component of Google’s new Downtown West neighborhood of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, hotel facilities, open spaces, entertainment centers and cultural loops.

“Google taking the time and opportunity to offer salvage of older buildings is commendable,” said Bob Staedler,  principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “It takes quite a bit of time and energy to make those salvage items available to the public. This effort shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

One of the numerous documents prepared in connection with the Downtown West proposal addressed Google’s plans to preserve several key buildings in the footprint of the game-changing project, where the search giant eventually intends to employ 20,000 to 25,000 tech workers.

The former Hellwig Iron Works building, constructed sometime around 1935, is one of the buildings that’s expected to be reused as it exists, although it’s likely some additions could be made to the structure.

After the ironworks closed its doors, Navlet’s Florists and a Taiko performance studio also operated in the distinctive brick building.

“150 South Montgomery Street, last occupied by San Jose Taiko, is being repurposed for adaptive reuse,” a Google spokesperson said.

It’s likely that the Hellwig Ironworks could be expanded as part of the building’s reuse, according to documents on file with city officials.

“One or more additions and adaptive reuse of the building to accommodate new arts and cultural uses” are envisioned as part of the Hellwig structure’s future, the city documents show.

Among the other historic or noteworthy buildings that are being retained, reused adaptively, or relocated:

• Kearney Pattern Works and Foundry at 40 South Montgomery Street, constructed in 1922. The historic sections of the building will be relocated about 30 feet to the south. “Once relocated, the building would be expanded and adaptively reused to accommodate new retail, cultural, arts, education, and/or other active uses,” the city report stated, with the new frontage on Montgomery Street. The non-historic portions of this building on South Autumn Street would be demolished.
• San Jose Water Works building at 374 West Santa Clara Street, constructed in 1934. The building is being preserved and renovated.
• Stephens Meat Co. “dancing pig sign.” Google removed and preserved the iconic sign that for decades was a fixture near the Diridon train station and the SAP Center. The sign, temporarily at San Jose History Park, will eventually find a permanent long-term home in the Downtown West project.
• Sunlite Bakery at 145 South Montgomery Street, constructed in 1936. Google has decided to rescue the Art Moderne-style entrance of the structure and relocate it elsewhere in the company’s new transit-oriented neighborhood.

The office building is slated to become “a cornerstone of the Downtown West neighborhood that we are developing,” Kent Walker, president of global affairs of Google owner Alphabet, said in April 2022 during a San Jose event to discuss the tech titan’s investments in the Bay Area.

The preservation of so many historic and existing prominent buildings will help Google’s new neighborhood to blend in with the existing areas on the western edges of downtown San Jose, in Staedler’s view.

“This shows a commitment to honoring the historical elements of San Jose while making way for the next evolution of the Diridon Station area,” Staedler said.