Genesis Commercial Plans Apartments Near Topgolf San Jose

Genesis Commercial Capital wants to employ the state’s builder’s remedy to build more than 800 apartments on the site of an approved 200-room hotel in north San Jose.

The developer led by David Kim in L.A.’s Koreatown has filed preliminary plans to build an 804-unit complex at 7 Topgolf Drive, in the Alviso District, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.

The firm aims to use the builder’s remedy provision in state housing law that streamlines approvals for projects with affordable housing in cities such as San Jose that fail to certify their state housing plans.

Plans call for eight apartment buildings on 3.2 acres.

The firm’s proposal comes about six months after South Korea-based Pine Tree Investment & Management bought the lot at the close of a foreclosure proceeding for $27.6 million.

Pine Tree is an affiliate of KEB Hana Bank, based in South Korea, which had loaned money to the property’s previous owner, Mirae Asset Global Investments. Mirae’s loan went into default in October last year.

Mirae-San Jose paid $22.5 million in 2019 for the boomerang-shaped site, north of Highway 237 and the Guadalupe River, next to the Topgolf San Jose driving range. That year, it won approval for the hotel project, which then stalled during the pandemic.

The proposed hotel, to include a 15,400-square-foot retail building, was eyed for development by Shilla Stay, an affiliate of Samsung Group.

It would have benefited from Topgolf San Jose, a high-tech driving range nearby that opened in 2021 and has been a steady draw as an entertainment, sports and dining attraction. It is located at 10 Topgolf Drive.

Terra Ventures, which had planned to build restaurants, shops and two hotels near the Topgolf range, has instead filed plans to build a three-story power building and two-story data center at Topgolf Drive and North First Street.

— Dana Bartholomew