Hotel conversion underway in San Jose

California Construction News staff writer

Downtown San Jose’s Pacific Motor Inn is being transformed from a hotel that once used to shelter people from COVID into a massive mixed-income apartment complex.

Once completed, the development will bring about 500 apartments into the downtown area, including permanent supportive, affordable and market-rate homes. During development, the original 72-rooms of the hotel will act as temporary housing for homeless residents living on the streets.

Over the next five years, the site will be redeveloped to include affordable housing, including 140 affordable apartments, 72 of which would be permanent supportive housing, owned and operated by PATH Ventures.

A high-rise building on the same lot will have 360 market-rate apartments, owned and operated by Westbank.

“This is the first time that supportive housing for families, affordable housing and market-rate housing will be built on one lot in California — but it won’t be the last,” Mahan said at a news conference. “This project shows that innovation is possible when the public, private and nonprofit sectors come together to solve our homelessness crisis.”

The Pacific Motor Inn, located at 455 S. Second St., was recently acquired by PMI Partners LLC, a joint venture between PATH Ventures and Westbank. The hotel, which housed homeless residents during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, has long been eyed as a site that can be transformed into housing.