Lender Pushes Housing At Troubled San Jose Greyhound Property
Lenders on the abandoned Greyhound bus terminal in downtown San Jose want to foreclose on the property, paving the way for redevelopment into a mid-rise apartment tower, The Mercury News reported.
The property is owned by Full Standard Properties, an affiliate of China-based Z&L Properties. The lender is a Texas-based group led by developer Chris Jiashu Xu and executive William Wang that wants a judge in a bankruptcy case to allow the foreclosure to proceed.
Such a ruling would allow the lender to seize the property and move forward with its redevelopment plans, which include up to 700 housing units, according to a Sept. 15 court filing reported by The Mercury News.
Full Standard defaulted on a $19.5M loan tied to the site in 2024.
Z&L is headed by the embattled Zhang Li, who in 2021 was charged with wire fraud in connection with a wide-ranging investigation into public corruption in San Francisco City Hall.
He faced extradition to the U.S. to stand trial for alleged kickbacks to Mohammad Nuru, formerly the public works chief for the city of San Francisco. The bribe was tied to the company’s mixed-use project at 555 Fulton St. He was arrested in London in 2022.
Li and Z&L, which was previously based in Fremont, admitted to the charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. He paid a $1M fine, a separate $50K fine and departed the U.S. for China within a day of arriving. Prosecutors agreed to drop the charges.
The corruption investigation looked into bribery and corruption connected to City Hall officials including Nuru, former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly and multiple city contractors.
Z&L Properties failed to deliver on several projects across the Bay Area, including The Oak, a condo building at 1664 Market St. that sat vacant for three years after investor Steven Hong acquired the property to convert to rentals. Avery Bays Real Estate Development acquired 555 Fulton St. in 2023.
