San Jose council votes Tuesday on Mills Act tax-break contracts for Hotel De Anza and three historic buildings

SAN JOSE — The City Council is set to vote Tuesday, Nov. 10, on tax-cutting preservation contracts for four older buildings, including downtown’s Hotel De Anza, according to the meeting’s amended agenda.  The items are on the consent calendar, approved in one vote.

Under the state Mills Act, owners agree to keep up a historic property for at least 10 years.  In return, the assessor values it by rental income, not sale value, which can lower taxes, the state Office of Historic Preservation says.  In San José, only city landmarks qualify.  Owners must reinvest at least 10% of the savings yearly, and contracts bind future owners, city memos say.

Three sites would also become city landmarks:  the Kow Kee Sixplex, Japantown’s oldest surviving building, the city says; the Kogura Company Building; and the Serpa Plumbing complex.  The Hotel De Anza has been a landmark since 1981.

Work plans include hotel boilers, sixplex brick walls and its neon sign, and Serpa plumbing and wiring.  Staff say the city’s tax loss is unknown until the assessor sets values.

A short history of the four buildings

Hotel De Anza, 233 W. Santa Clara St.  The 10-story hotel was designed by architect William H. Weeks, who called it “modernistic,” and built in 1930 and 1931, a city memo says.  More than 200 local investors in the San Jose Community Hotel Corporation paid for it, hoping to draw conventions downtown.  It opened in 1931 with nearly 150 rooms, shops and a ballroom.  Its stepped, zigzag Art Deco front and rooftop neon sign are its best-known features, and its old two-story lobby is now the Hedley Club bar.  It joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

Kow Kee Sixplex, 605 N. Sixth St.  Chinese immigrant businessman Charley Kow Kee built it in 1888, during the era of Heinlenville, San José’s Chinatown, the city says.  He built it on leased land, which reflects limits on Asian immigrants owning property.  For more than 70 years it housed Chinese, Japanese and Filipino residents and businesses, including grocery stores, job offices, laundries, restaurants, barbershops and billiards halls, and served as a neighborhood bulletin board.  The Kogura family bought it in 1961.

Kogura Company Building, 231 Jackson St.  The two-story Japantown storefront was built in 1906 and remodeled in 1936 with the Art Deco front it still has, a city memo says.  It is tied to Kohei Kogura, a Japanese American businessman and community leader.  During World War II, when the Kogura family was forced into an incarceration camp, attorney J. B. Peckham worked to protect the property.

Serpa Plumbing complex, North 13th and East Empire streets.  The four buildings went up between 1910 and 1928, a city memo says.  The corner building at 497 N. 13th St. was first built by Manuel J. Smith for a well-drilling and hardware business serving Santa Clara Valley farms.  Starting in 1917, William F. Serpa expanded the site for his plumbing, sheet metal and contracting business, and local architect Ralph Wyckoff designed one of the buildings in 1927.  It was Serpa’s headquarters until 1960, when the corner building became a laundromat, which it still is.  The city says the site reflects Portuguese American families’ role in the local economy.

Source:  City of San José Council amended agenda, Nov. 10, 2026, items 10.1(a)–(d) and planning memos for the Kogura Company Building, Kow Kee Sixplex, Serpa property and Hotel De Anza.