SAN JOSE — City officials are poised to crack down on a site of blight in downtown San Jose where a housing tower was once proposed but never built, a stalled process that led to a foreclosure of what the owner called a rat-infested property.
In the wake of the foreclosure in October 2025, San Mateo-based TDA Investment Group now owns the building at 27 South First St. through an affiliate. Blight, graffiti, and a rodent invasion plague the property, documents on file with the city show.
“The situation at 27 South First St. shows the city has a blight enforcement problem, not a planning problem,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “This property has sat vacant for years with ongoing graffiti and violations, despite repeated citations and oversight.”
San Jose officials previously approved the development of a 24-story, 374-unit housing tower on the parcel, which has frontages on South First Street and Lightston Alley. The tower never broke ground…