A longtime South Bay business is desperately trying to find a new home this week after being told it may be evicted from its current location to make room for BART's extension into San Jose.
Silicon Valley Granite, located on North 30th Street next to Highway 101, has been in the same spot for a quarter-century, selling all things granite, from headstones to raw slabs for contractors. On April 28 after months of negotiating with the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, owner Sridhar Kollareddy said he was given 48 hours to get out.
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WATCH HERE"We never expected this to happen in this country," Kollareddy said.
Sheriff's deputies came to the granite business to serve papers, but after seeing what it would take to move his entire operation, they gave Kollareddy another week.
Thursday was supposed to be the new eviction day.
"They got pressure from the public and also from the board members," Kollareddy said.
Kollareddy said two VTA board members visited the site and agreed it would be a monumental task to move out even in a week to make room for a new BART station.
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"As per their estimate, it takes five months with 15 people on both sides," Kollareddy said. "I need to have equipment and people on the receiving side, too."
In a written statement, VTA said, "We are not enforcing the eviction order at this time as we continue to work with SV Granite as they make progress to relocate."
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SIGN UP The family-owned business was breathing a sigh of relief Thursday but said they’re still feeling the heat, both because of the threat of a pending eviction and the difficult task of finding a lot that’s anything like their current one.
"The ones that are there are basically just cost prohibitive," Praneeth Kollareddy said. "It’s upwards of like $70,000 a month."
The family hopes a one-acre site nearby will help them run a trimmed-down version of their company, but it’s still in limbo and not large enough to hold all of their inventory.
