GILROY
– The nearly 70-year-old downtown cannery building – which looks
every bit its age – will likely be torn down if the historic site
is turned into affordable housing and commercial property, people
close to the project say.
GILROY – The nearly 70-year-old downtown cannery building – which looks every bit its age – will likely be torn down if the historic site is turned into affordable housing and commercial property, people close to the project say.
South County Housing Executive Director Dennis Lalor says his organization is interested in historical preservation, but it’s only one factor in an overall project that could bring a mix of retail stores, inexpensive apartments and affordable townhouses to downtown – a concept heavily touted by City Council candidates on the campaign trail in the November election.
“We’re not writing anything off at this point,” Lalor said. “But even if the building has a lot of use left for what it was originally intended for (in this case, food packing and distribution), it still may not be useful for another use.”
Mayor-elect Al Pinheiro says he is not overly concerned about the loss of the historic structure at Lewis and Railroad streets.
“I sweat more the idea that one of the biggest eyesores in town is there in our downtown,” Pinheiro said.
However, Pinheiro said if the building is torn down it would be a nice gesture to rebuild it in a similar architectural style to what exists now.
“It would be a good idea to keep the architectural (integrity),” Pinheiro said.
Gilroy Historical Society member Connie Rogers echoed Pinheiro’s comments.
“I don’t think there would be any historical concerns with the cannery. It certainly is a historic site, but it’s such an ugly building. … In my personal opinion, I don’t think any part of it should be saved,” Rogers said.
Rogers said it would be appropriate to create a plaque marking the site’s historical significance to Gilroy.
The 202,000-square-foot dilapidated industrial building is hardly an architectural marvel on the level of the 1905 Flemish-Baroque Old City Hall. However, a skywalk that connects the split-level building to warehouse-style structures on the east side of the site gives the property an architectural presence beyond that of most modern day industrial buildings.
Lalor said Wheeler Manor is an example of South County Housing’s effort to blend history and function. In the Wheeler instance, the organization refurbished the 1929 hospital building. However, the portion of the hospital that was added after 1950 was razed.
“It was a situation where you would have had some living quarters with windows and others with none,” Lalor said. “That may work fine for a hospital, but not for apartments.”
South County Housing – the county’s foremost affordable housing developer – has until April to decide if it wants to purchase the cannery from JH Investments.
South County Housing has an option-to-buy agreement on seven acres of the 12-acre site, allowing the group to study whether it can afford to buy the cannery and convert it into homes and retail shops.
The assessed value of the whole property is more than $1.9 million, but according to city documents, purchases of the property made in the 1990s hit $8.2 and $8.8 million.
Bill Lindsteadt, executive director of the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, is working on a plan that would make the cannery more affordable for South County Housing.
Lindsteadt is putting the word out that businesses can rent industrial space on the east side of the site at a rate “well below market value.”
Lindsteadt figures that while construction gets under way on the west side of the property, the existing warehouse-style spaces on the east side can be used on a temporary basis by businesses.
“Everyone benefits, because South County Housing gets the revenue and the business get a cheap rent,” Lindsteadt said.
Lalor does not know how long the tenants would be able to rent the spaces, but called it a “significant potential source of revenue.”
“It’s common sense to take advantage of the available space,” Lalor said.
Councilman-elect Paul Correa, who campaigned on a platform to bring more livable wage jobs and downtown housing to Gilroy, said he would use the January City Council retreat to discuss the potential for giving incentives to South County Housing.
Correa said he wants the city to look into waiving various fees that would normally be charged to developers. Already, Council passed a stimulus package for downtown businesses that includes waivers of building permit fees, plan check fees and expensive development impact fees.
That package, however, only included businesses that front Monterey Street from roughly First to Tenth streets. If Council wants to provide South County Housing with similar incentives, it will have to expand those boundaries or draft new legislation.
“I want to contact South County Housing, and I want to bring it up at a retreat because that way Council has an opportunity to work together as a team,” Correa said.
The cannery site was developed first in 1915 by Gennaro Filice and John Perrelli. The site was used to pack tomatoes and eventually 50 varieties of fruits and vegetables. The original building burned in April 1931 and, according to city documents, was rebuilt in 1935.
The existing structure was victim to flames, too. In summer 1999 both floors of the two-story section of the building burned in a fire with causes unknown.
