SAN JOSE — A large San Jose office building linked to one of Northern California’s veteran real estate firms has been seized through a foreclosure that points to slumping Bay Area commercial property values.
The lender for the building, located at 2290 North First Street, now owns the property, as shown by the results of a trustee’s sale and loan foreclosure held on March 24 in downtown San Jose that this news organization attended.
Through affiliates, the building had been owned by a group tied to Case Swenson, chief executive officer and president of San Jose-based Swenson, a stalwart of Bay Area real estate.
Prime Finance Short Duration Holding Co. took ownership of the office building after it foreclosed on a $12 million loan, according to Santa Clara County real estate records, the lender had provided to the Swenson-linked affiliate in 2021.
The lender took control of the building at a value of just under $9 million.
This means that the building is now worth 55.3% less than the property’s value as estimated in January 2024 by the Santa Clara County Assessor’s Office.
The 2290 North First building isn’t the only north San Jose office property to struggle financially. Others include the following:
— 3100 North First St. was foreclosed and seized by its lender at a value of $19 million in May 2024. It was then bought for $17.5 million by a fast-expanding biotech company in September. In January 2024, Assessor’s Office placed the then-empty building’s value at $32.1 million.
— 10 West Tasman was taken back by its lender through foreclosure in October 2024 for $23.7 million, far below its assessed value of $51.3 million at the start of 2024. The foreclosure occurred despite the former owner’s efforts to ward off the foreclosure by filing for bankruptcy.
The loan foreclosure on the 2290 North First building occurred with a backdrop of forbidding economic challenges for the Bay Area office market.
The foreclosure on the delinquent financing is also a reminder that even a top real estate firm — which is the case with the Swenson organization — might still stumble financially in a rocky office market.
The public relations firm that represents the Swenson firm has not responded to inquiries from this news organization regarding the situation.
The building totals 75,900 square feet, according to the Compstak commercial property website. It wasn’t immediately clear how much space, if any, was vacant in the building at the time of the foreclosure.