As land is being prepared for BART’s ongoing extension into San Jose, the former tenants are having to move out. But one business owner hasn’t left yet, not because he’s holding out, but because relocating his merchandise presents some unique challenges.
The items that retail businesses keep in stock are considered a hard asset. But Sridhar Kollareddy’s inventory is harder than most.
“They’re all granite slabs and granite monuments. Those are the monuments. On the other side, everything is tiles,” he said.
Silicon Valley Granite is a 3-acre outdoor supermarket of 7,000 massive stone slabs, thousands of polished monuments and about half a million tiles, imported from around the world by Kollareddy over the last 30 years.
“I moved to this country in 1998. I’ve been doing this all my life,” he said proudly. “It’s my passion, it’s my livelihood. That’s what I do all my life. I don’t know anything else.”
The problem is the business sits in the middle of a block that has been taken through eminent domain by VTA to make room for the future 28th St. and Little Portugal BART station. The other tenants have already packed up and left, but for Kollareddy, it’s not that simple.
“Each one of these slabs can be hundreds, if not over a thousand pounds,” said his son, Praneeth. “Moving it requires very special skill, specialized equipment. It’s impossible to move this in any kind of short timeline.”
The business was notified that it would have to move several years ago, but Praneeth said they’ve tried to find another location that can handle the material, without success. There have been several extensions, but now VTA has lost its patience, and last week, a judge ordered the business to vacate.
The deadline is Thursday morning and anything left in the yard would be considered “abandoned” material and would become the property of VTA. That could be millions of dollars’ worth of stone.
“Right now, this is literally just a last-ditch effort to save my dad’s livelihood,” said Kollareddy’s daughter Anisha.
For the past week, family members and extra work crews have been moving material out as quickly as they can, but so far, only about 5 percent has been relocated, mostly to a temporary home on friends’ property. Anisha said, with each item requiring a forklift to move, they never figured they could be the victim of retail theft, but that’s how it feels to them now.
“You don’t think that someone can steal thousands of pounds of marble and granite and stuff,” she said. “You think it’s impossible, but it feels like it’s all being ‘lifted,’ all his life savings, 401(k), everything gone in two days.”
The Kollareddy’s are asking that VTA compensate them for the entire inventory or at least give them a few more months to move what the agency won’t purchase. But, at least for now, VTA said it’s done talking, and they need to be out by Thursday.
Kollareddy said he never thought such a thing was possible when he moved to America.
“I mean, they’re stealing me,” he said. “Whatever I made for my whole life, they’re stealing overnight. I’ll be left with zero and be thrown on the street. It is totally an injustice. Basically, they’re stealing. Stealing somebody’s money, somebody’s life.”
Kollareddy said he is looking for another location, even just to downsize the business, but one consultant estimated that moving all the material could take five months and cost $1.5 million.
The family wants people to know that they are not against the new BART station, and they don’t mind moving, but for them it’s not so easy. And they say convincing VTA of that has been like running into a stone wall.
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John Ramos
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