SAN JOSE — Hundreds have signed up for a waiting list to buy condominiums in two San Jose housing towers whose success could be a key catalyst to help invigorate the city’s downtown.
Machine Investment Group, owner of the 188 West St. James towers, and Centurion Real Estate Partners, the property’s operator, are scouting for prospective buyers of unsold condos in the residential complex.
“We have about 500 people on the waiting list to buy condos,” said John Tashjian, managing partner with Centurion Real Estate. “That’s unheard-of interest. I’ve had 50, I’ve had 100. But I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
The 640-unit residential hub consists of a 22-floor eastern tower with 337 units and a 20-floor western tower with 303 units. Machine Investment and Centurion are focused on selling the units in the western tower first.
Pool deck between the two housing towers at 188 West St. James Street in downtown San Jose, concept image. (Steinberg Hart) Downtown San Jose and the pool deck of the 188 West St. James residential towers complex, looking south towards San Pedro Square, as seen on Feb. 25, 2026. (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)“This can be fantastic for the downtown,” said David Taxin, a partner with Meacham/Oppenheimer, a San Jose-based commercial real estate firm. “You are going to get more people downtown. You will see a trickle-down effect for restaurants.”
Potentially, 700 to 900 people could live at 188 West St. James, depending on the number of people who might live in each unit, according to Tashjian.
“Having homeowners with equity in those towers means they will be living and owning downtown,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use and planning consultancy. “The buyers will have equity in the area, and they will be part of the downtown success story.”
Starting prices are $429,000 for studios, $600,000 for one-bedroom units, $900,000 for two-bedroom units, and $1.8 million for penthouses, according to a marketing flyer for a recent launch event at the towers.
“They are onto something with those price points,” Taxin said. “Most of the younger generation is priced out of single-family homes right now.”
The owner and its partner in the project believe the towers can entice people, considering what they perceive as the current market conditions in the South Bay.
“There is a lot of pent-up demand for housing, and San Jose is desperate to add housing in the city,” Tashjian said. “We want to make this the premier place to live downtown.”
Machine Investment is spending $30 million on wide-ranging upgrades to prepare the towers for occupants, Tashjian stated. That overall figure includes about $6 million that’s being spent in the amenities and pool sections, he added.
The lobby and amenities in the western tower could be completed in two to four weeks, Tashjian estimated. The work in the eastern tower could be accomplished within two or three months.
“It’s great to hear that the other tower is as close to being finished as it is,” Staedler said. “This will help the tax base and the vibrancy of the downtown.”
The attempt to create a viable and vibrant residential hub arrives after years of neglect and fumbled strategies by the prior owner, an affiliate of China-based real estate firm Z&L Properties.
Z&L Properties presided over a financial, construction, development and legal ordeal that engulfed the towers in a string of setbacks that lingered over an eight-year stretch.
A loan delinquency, lawsuits, project delays, construction blunders and defects, evidence that some workers were forced to live in an East Bay warehouse, allegations of slave labor and a death haunted the property while Z&L owned it.
Z&L also bungled its marketing efforts. It sold some units, then switched to rentals for other condos. That left a blend of tenants and owners in the western tower, while the eastern tower remained empty.
Eventually, Z&L ran out of money for the towers and stopped trying to rescue the residential complex, leaving it mostly empty.
In June 2025, an affiliate of Machine Investment took ownership through a speedy foreclosure that valued the property at $181.9 million. The foreclosure was the result of Z&L’s default on a $330 million construction loan.
The residential hub’s ownership group is betting the property’s checkered history will fade from memory as people move into their newly bought homes in the towers, which are landmarks perched on San Jose’s skyline.
“It’s a turn-the-page moment,” Tashjian said. “This is a new chapter for downtown San Jose.”
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