Convent Sold ! 17 New Homes to be Built Starting at $3,500,000 Plus

posted in: Holy Names, Our Town | 0

SummerHill buys Sisters’ 10-acre convent grounds in Los Gatos

sold sign v2
Aug 27, 2014, 1:08pm PDT UPDATED: Aug 29, 2014, 3:39pm PDT

Real Estate Sign – Sold
RA Studio
Nathan Donato-Weinstein

Real Estate Reporter- Silicon Valley Business Journal
Email | Twitter

Nearly two years after putting their Los Gatos convent and grounds on the market, the Sisters of the Holy Names have sold the roughly 10-acre property to a local homebuilder.
SummerHill Homes, based in San Ramon, closed on the site at 100 Prospect Ave. this week for an undisclosed sum. The company plans to build 17 homes there at prices starting at $3.5 million, executives said.

“We’re very excited about having been selected by the Sisters,” Katia Kamangar, executive vice president for SummerHill, told me in a phone interview today. “It’s a very special property, and a beautiful hillside setting.”

The Sisters have been a Los Gatos fixture for about 70 years, but said in November 2012 that the 66 women who currently live at the complex would move to two local retirement communities and put the land up for sale.
During the marketing process, the Sisters engaged well-known land-use consultancy, Los Gatos-based Morley Bros., to gain entitlements for the site. The town approved the plan for a subdivision there last year without much fuss, a rarity in Los Gatos.

While not a huge homebuilding site in terms of unit count, the opportunity to acquire 17 half-acre lots was compelling for SummerHill, which specializes in infill locations in desirable markets. Single-family lots are scarce these days, especially in Los Gatos, but are prized for their ability to command strong prices. The Sisters’ proximity to the town’s bustling downtown and hillside views were also attraction points.
“It’s the perfect type of SummerHill opportunity,” Kamangar said. “It’s infill, great schools. And the unique aspect is it’s half-acre lots in Los Gatos. That’s rare in any community. It’s wonderful because there are still many homebuyers who want a traditional family home.”

SummerHill will lease back the land to the Sisters until they complete their transition to their new retirement homes, Kamangar said.

I wasn’t immediately able to connect with the Sisters for an update on their plans. But they told the Los Gatos Weekly in 2012 that the decision to sell was not easy.
“We had originally hoped that we could find a partner to build a full service continuing care facility,” Sister Mary Pat LeRoy told the paper. But those plans turned out to be prohibitively expensive, so the Sisters decided to move to two continuing care communities: Our Lady of Fatima Villa in Saratoga and Merrill Gardens in Campbell.
The Sisters’ history in the town runs deep. According to The Catholic Voice, a publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, the Sisters bought their property in Los Gatos in 1947, and opened a convent there in 1952. They eventually acquired more land and built 13 buildings totaling about 95,000 square feet. Their good works, history and declining numbers are chronicled in this story from Metro in 2001.
For SummerHill, the acquisition marks something of a return. In 2001, the company completed Heritage Grove, which included 44 single-family homes on 105 acres, with 90 acres of open space. SummerHill also built Los Gatos Glen, consisting of 31 homes in the Lake Vasona area.
SummerHill is currently working with Grosvenor on a project proposed for the city’s so-called North 40 area, which is the largest undeveloped tract in the town. You can read more about that project here.
Kamangar said that SummerHill expects to submit its designs for the homes to the town this fall. “We’re also planning an open house for the neighbors to see the plans,” she said. “It’s a matter of designing homes that fit the context of the land.”
Sales could start 12 to 18 months from now. Units will range from 3,600 square feet to 4,700 square feet. Pricing is yet to be finalized, but based on current market sales trends would start at about $3.5 million.
Nathan Donato-Weinstein covers commercial real estate and transportation for the Silicon Valley Business Journal.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *