SAN JOSE — A long-empty commercial building in downtown San Jose is poised to enjoy a revival now that three healthcare businesses have set up shop at the site.
Dental Specialties Institute, Dental Perfections and Scrublyfe Uniforms have opened their doors inside a two-story building at 48 East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose.
“This is quite a transformation,” San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said at an event to mark the opening of the Dental Specialities Institute operation. “A few months ago, this corner was bringing down the neighborhood. Now it’s bright and colorful.”
The three dental-oriented businesses are all owned by Samantha Belloso, a business entrepreneur who recently bought Dental Specialties Institute.
The institute offers an array of dental training programs, certified courses and continuing education.
“We have a large list of registrations waiting to get into classes,” Belloso said.
Belloso said she prefers downtown San Jose to a more suburban setting.
“I decided to come to downtown San Jose as we are very affiliated in the area with many entrepreneurs, leaders and many of the colleges and schools we service for scrub uniforms,” Belloso said.
The three businesses are now located in a site commonly known as the Western Dental Building at the corner of East Santa Clara Street and South Second Street. Western Dental departed the building a few years ago, leaving it empty.
The building is owned by an LLC operating as San Jose-based Thanh Cong Investments. This business entity bought the property in 2014, paying about $3.2 million for the site.
The deal to bring the trio of healthcare businesses to the location helps to further the city’s efforts to fill the many empty ground floors that haunt downtown San Jose.
“There are still vacant storefronts,” Mayor Mahan said. “It’s a work in progress, but we are steadily plugging away to make this stretch of the downtown safe, clean and vibrant.”
Belloso said she hopes the dental organizations she owns can help the city achieve its quest to create more vibrancy in downtown San Jose.
“Dental Specialties Institute is eager and ready to bring positive change to this corner of Second and Santa Clara,” Belloso said. “We are opening our facility to the community and are building a large training facility to serve as many individuals as we can, to change their lives as they start a new career.”
Downtown San Jose can become more than merely an urban core for the Bay Area’s largest city, in Mahan’s view. It can be a gathering place for the entire South Bay region, he asserts.
“We are going to continue to realize our potential as the urban center, the downtown for all of Silicon Valley,” Mahan said.