The property located in the 600 block of San Antonio Road in Palo Alto was sold on Dec. 30, 2022. The $1,675,000 purchase price works out to $1,214 per square foot. The condominium built in 1979 has an interior space of 1,380 square feet. The property features three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garage, and two parking spaces, as well as a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on a 1,176-square-foot lot.

Additional units have recently been purchased nearby:

• A 1,826-square-foot unit on the 400 block of San Antonio Road in Palo Alto sold in September 2022 for $1,966,000, a price per square foot of $1,077. The unit has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• On San Antonio Road, Palo Alto, in August 2022, a 1,826-square-foot unit was sold for $1,950,000, a price per square foot of $1,068. The unit has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• In November 2022, a 1,826-square-foot unit on San Antonio Road in Palo Alto sold for $1,800,000, a price per square foot of $986. The unit has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

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.

”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.

Buzz: Economic reality has hit California landlords, and their tenants are the winners with four consecutive months of falling rents.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet looked at December’s estimates of lease rates for new tenants in 56 large California cities, compiled by ApartmentList.

Topline

California big-city rents ran $2,110 a month, according to my populated-weighted average of the cities. That’s down 1.1% in a month as 88% of the big cities tracked had falling rents for the month. Rents are off $86 or 4% since August.

And December’s rent was up only 2.4% in a year. That’s the smallest year-over-year increase in 19 months.

But let’s note this recent dip doesn’t wipe away pandemic-era pain for renters. California rents are still up 13% in three years, or $240 a month.

Topline

Let’s look at some extremes among the 56 California cities tracked for December …

Where were the largest rent declines?

1-month drop: Oceanside, off 3.9% to $2,622.

12-month drop: Ventura, off 4.4% to $2,063.

3-year drop: Oakland, off 15% to $1,628.

And which cities had the biggest rent gains?

1-month gain: Ventura, up 1.3% to $2,058.

12-month gain: Escondido, up 11.8% to $2,231.

3-year gain: Escondido, up 40% to $2,231.

And the monthly rent extremes?

Priciest city? Irvine at $3,068.

Cheapest? Fresno at $1,299.

Consider that rents fell in December in nine of California’s 10 most-populated cities. Here are the cities, ranked by one-month rent change …

Santa Ana: $2,111 monthly median new lease rate, down 1.9% in a month, up 0.5% in a year, and up 22% in three years.

San Francisco: $2,196 monthly, down 1.7% in a month, up 2% in a year, and down 13% in three years.

San Diego: $2,345 monthly, down 1.4% in a month, up 4.6% in a year, and up 27% in three years.

San Jose: $2,386 monthly, down 1.3% in a month, up 6.6% in a year, and up 3% in three years.

Los Angeles: $1,873 monthly, down 1% in a month, up 1.7% in a year, and up 6% in three years.

Long Beach: $1,678 monthly, down 0.9% in a month, up 4% in a year, and up 17% in three years.

Sacramento: $1,624 monthly, down 0.8% in a month, down 1.8% in a year, and up 20% in three years.

Oakland: $1,628 monthly, down 0.7% in a month, down 2.8% in a year, down 15% in three years.

Fresno: $1,299 monthly, down 0.2% in a month, up 1.6% in a year, and up 23% in three years.

Anaheim: $2,227 monthly, up 0.2% in a month, up 3.8% in a year, and up 26% in three years.

Bottom line

Ponder 2022’s economic timeline: Reduced coronavirus fears. Workers going back to the office. Students return to classrooms. On top of that, toss in some economic anxieties.

That nudged many renters, or potential renters, to think they no longer needed separate or larger living spaces. This took the steam out of demand for housing, translating to extra empty rentals for many landlords.

So now we’re seeing a sale on rents – discounting that could run throughout much of 2023.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

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  Up for grabs at $3.8 million is the former Palm Springs home of socialite Magda Gabor, seen here in 1954, newly made over by designer Tracy Turco. (Composite by Sandra Barrera, Southern California News Group; Inset: AFP via Getty Images; House: Michael Roth)

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  The veranda. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The living room. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The kitchen. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The dining room. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The primary bedroom. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The soaking tub in the primary bathroom. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  The pool. (Photo by Michael Roth)

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  A 1954 file photo of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sisters Eva and Magda. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

The former Palm Springs home of late socialite Magda Gabor boasting a glamorous new makeover has hit the market for $3.8 million.

Bursting with color and original fabrics and wall coverings, the revamped three-bedroom, 3,441-square-foot home with four bathrooms is the vision of designer Tracy Turco.

“It’s such a unique property, and then Tracy takes it to a whole other level,” said Conrad Miller of Avenue 8, the co-listing agent.

Property records show Turco and her real estate developer husband, Jerry, picked up the home on a nearly two-third-acre hilltop lot in Little Tuscany in August 2020 for $1.74 million. The couple is known for buying and renovating neglected mid-century properties like a 1961 home by William Krisel listed for $1.149 million and the retro boutique hotels the Art Hotel, Tiki Hotel, Cheetah Hotel and Deco Palm Hotel.

Turco puts her spin on the 1964 abode while incorporating furnishings and treatments that are original to the eldest and only redhead of the famous Gabor sisters.

As Southern California News Group previously reported, Gabor bought the home in the late 1960s at the urging of her countess mother. The property had been the site of star-studded parties and even fashion shoots during her tenure.

County records indicate the property remained in her name and that of her sister Zsa Zsa through separate trusts until August 1998, when the property sold for $440,000.

According to the listing, the sisters “separately occupied the estate for over 30 years.”

A painting of Magda Gabor, who died in 1997 at 81, hangs on the foyer’s wall.

Her first initial is etched on the home’s mirrored walls, including the one that runs the length of the combined living and dining room with its hidden closet. The mirror reflects the veranda.

With its pink overhang and striped black and white valance, the veranda overlooks the mosaic-tiled pool and mountains beyond.

Views also abound from the breakfast room nearest the kitchen, with its custom-trowelled ceiling and original Hungarian rotisserie, to the primary bathroom. It has dual vanities, a shower and a soaking tub. A curtain closes the bathroom from the rest of the primary suite’s bedroom, with its sitting room/office, dressing room, makeup room and two walk-in closets.

Other Gabor-era originals include a grand piano, a dining room table and crystal chandeliers.

The patio table belonged to Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Brandon Holland of Avenue 8 shares the listing, which is available turnkey.

A spacious historic house built in 1918 located in the 6200 block of Chabot Road in Oakland has a new owner. The 2,146-square-foot property was sold on Dec. 14, 2022. The $2,800,000 purchase price works out to $1,305 per square foot. The property features three bedrooms, two baths, a garage, and one parking space. It sits on a 4,200-square-foot lot.

Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:

• In September 2022, a 2,224-square-foot home on Presley Way in Oakland sold for $2,050,000, a price per square foot of $922. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• A 1,923-square-foot home on the 5900 block of Miles Avenue in Oakland sold in August 2022 for $1,955,000, a price per square foot of $1,017. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
• On Birch Court, Oakland, in August 2022, a 2,524-square-foot home was sold for $2,825,000, a price per square foot of $1,119. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

A spacious house built in 1990 located in the 4100 block of Rockcreek Drive in Danville has new owners. The 3,237-square-foot property was sold on Dec. 30, 2022 for $1,745,500, or $539 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, three baths, an attached garage, and two parking spaces. It sits on a 6,960-square-foot lot.

Additional houses have recently been sold close by:

• In September 2022, a 2,468-square-foot home on Knollview Drive in Danville sold for $1,650,000, a price per square foot of $669. The home has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
• A 3,281-square-foot home on the 4200 block of Knollview Drive in Danville sold in July 2022 for $1,995,000, a price per square foot of $608. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• On Stoneybrook Court, Danville, in June 2022, a 3,237-square-foot home was sold for $2,330,000, a price per square foot of $720. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

A 1,612-square-foot house built in 1964 has changed hands. The property located in the 2100 block of Northampton Drive in San Jose was sold on Dec. 28, 2022 for $1,662,000, or $1,031 per square foot. The property features three bedrooms, three baths, a garage, and two parking spaces. There’s also a pool in the backyard. The unit sits on an 8,424-square-foot lot.

Additional houses have recently been purchased close by:

• In September 2022, a 2,566-square-foot home on Kirklyn Drive in San Jose sold for $2,280,000, a price per square foot of $889. The home has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• On Westmoreland Drive, San Jose, in December 2022, a 2,794-square-foot home was sold for $1,975,000, a price per square foot of $707. The home has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.
• A 2,810-square-foot home on the 1800 block of Kirkmont Drive in San Jose sold in December 2022 for $1,850,000, a price per square foot of $658. The home has 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

During housing booms, market rents rise fastest in low-income neighborhoods that are in proximity to richer neighborhoods, according to the Bay Area Equity Atlas. Many low-income communities of color, which have historically suffered economic neglect and disinvestment, are now at risk for rapidly rising rents due to gentrification.

While Richmond and Mountain View have both recently passed rent control measures, and San Jose approved a list of 10 anti-displacement strategies it wants to implement in the coming years, a large part of Bay Area renters remain unprotected, and existing controls do not limit rent increases between tenancies or cover newer homes.

That’s why Mountain View city officials are taking on a month-long discussion with renters, landlords and developers to address the ongoing threat of displacement as old apartments give way to new ones.

“There may be situations where we can have policies or programs to prevent displacement, there may be some situations where it cannot be prevented,” Assistant Community Development Director Wayne Chen said during a recent community meeting. “So that’s why this is called a displacement response strategy, it’s to prevent (displacement) but also to reduce the impact of displacement so people don’t have to lose their homes.”

Since 2012, city staff estimates that over 1,000 rent-controlled units have been demolished to give way to new construction of mostly market-rate apartments, displacing hundreds of families who struggled to find a new place in one of the region’s most expensive areas to live.

In 2019, the city council for the first time made renter displacement a high priority, and after two study sessions held in Oct. 2019 and Sept. 2020, the city is forging ahead with talks to come up with strategies the council will consider at the start of the summer.

The first two discussions scheduled for Wednesday afternoon will focus on property owners and nonprofit developers. On Jan. 19, city officials will hold discussions with market-rate developers, and on Jan. 25 and Jan. 26 tenants will be invited to give their perspectives. A final general community meeting is scheduled for Feb. 21 to summarize all public input from previous meetings before it goes to the city council.

“We can’t do it alone, so partnerships are very important,” Chen said. “To the extent possible we want to keep people in the homes they’re in and if not then keep residents in Mountain View somewhere in the city or if that’s not possible then somewhere close to the city. It’s a unit and place-based strategy.”

Right now Mountain View has some of the best tenant protections of any city in the Bay Area. The city passed a rent-control law in 2016 and extended it to mobile homes in 2022, and throughout specific development projects, it has worked to make sure renters have a place to go or assistance to relocate.

The city has just-cause eviction protections, rent control, rental assistance programs, and a Housing and Eviction Help Center to keep residents in their homes. It also recently passed a Tenant Relocation Assistance Ordinance and has approved new affordable units to reduce the impact of displacement.

But former Mayor Lenny Siegel and other tenant advocates and housing justice activists believe the city can do more to protect renters.

Siegel said he’s glad that these discussions are taking place now since some state protections are set to expire soon and could use some local backing too. For example, SB 330 — which requires rent-stabilized units be prepared with deed-restricted affordable ones based on the former tenant’s income — is set to sunset in 2030. And the Ellis Act, which allows demolished rent-controlled units to be replaced with “new” rent-controlled units could be bolstered by a city mandate.

Siegel said in an interview Monday that he hopes the council will “establish city policies that are more permanent and that would help as a guide to developers who are thinking of redeveloping parts of the city, especially mobile home parks.”

Siegel said another strategy could be requiring that developers keep units open as tenants move out before construction begins, allowing tenants more time to find new places to live and preventing landlords from renting units on a short-term basis which could also lead to displacement.

“There’s a calculation there, obviously, so that you don’t lose too much money by holding apartments open while trying to get approval for your development, but that’s the way they can get around having to provide assistance to people,” Siegel said.

Also, if there’s a legal way to do it, Siegel said the city should have a “very high bar” for how many affordable units are included in a project that tears down rent-controlled apartments.

“Make it really difficult for it to happen,” Siegel said. “Or have rent-controlled apartments with affordable deed-restricted units given to displaced folks to continue living at rent-control levels in comparable apartments.

But Siegel said the council’s ultimate decision will depend on who replaces Sally Lieber — who was recently elected in 2022 to the State Board of Equalization —  on the council. After much debate, the council ultimately decided earlier this month to appoint a new member to the body instead of holding a special election. The council’s current progressive makeup means they could choose someone who supports the kinds of ideas Siegel is proposing.

“It all depends on the new council member,” he said.

The historic property located in the 200 block of El Cerrito Avenue in Piedmont was sold on Nov. 23, 2022. The $1,725,000 purchase price works out to $1,051 per square foot. The house built in 1925 has an interior space of 1,642 square feet. The property features three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a garage. The unit sits on a 6,100-square-foot lot.

Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby:

• A 3,057-square-foot home on the 200 block of Hillside Avenue in Piedmont sold in July 2022 for $3,925,000, a price per square foot of $1,284. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• In September 2022, a 1,912-square-foot home on Keefer Court in Piedmont sold for $1,920,000, a price per square foot of $1,004. The home has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
• On Dracena Avenue, Piedmont, in June 2022, a 4,885-square-foot home was sold for $5,300,000, a price per square foot of $1,085. The home has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

This article was generated by the Bay Area Home Report Bot, software that analyzes home sales or other data and creates an article based on a template created by humans. Our real estate data comes from public records that have been registered and digitized by local county offices. You can report errors or bugs to content@bayareanewsgroup.com.

A spacious house built in 1994 located in the 5900 block of Acacia Avenue in Oakland has new owners. The 4,600-square-foot property was sold on Dec. 13, 2022 for $2,800,000, or $609 per square foot. The property features four bedrooms, four baths, a garage, and two parking spaces. It sits on a 6,960-square-foot lot.

These nearby houses have also recently been sold:

• On Beechwood Drive, Oakland, in October 2022, a 2,409-square-foot home was sold for $2,155,000, a price per square foot of $895. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.
• A 4,105-square-foot home on the 5900 block of Margarido Drive in Oakland sold in July 2022 for $3,500,000, a price per square foot of $853. The home has 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.
• In July 2022, a 1,347-square-foot home on Acacia Avenue in Oakland sold for $1,600,000, a price per square foot of $1,188. The home has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathrooms.