Longtime San Jose antique dealers on verge of being forced out
SAN JOSE -- Longtime antique dealers in San Jose are struggling to survive and now they're at risk of being pushed out entirely from a once-thriving antique shopping district.
When you walk through the doors of Eduardo Massa's antique store in San Jose, it's like a trip back in time: well-preserved pieces from the past and many hidden treasures from around the world.
There is a little bit of Massa in every painting, collectible and graceful artifact in the store. He's a former curator for art museums in his native Argentina and his eye for detail shows. But after 29 years doing business in the unincorporated Burbank district, he's afraid he might be forced to close.
"To me, it's going to be a very, very bad problem," Massa said.
His store was once part of a popular "Antiques Row" on West San Carlos street. But it's dwindled to just four stores. And now, the recent annexation of his block into the city of San Jose to build a large new development here could finish off the remaining stores.
"It means this would be the end of my business," Massa said.
The block was always an island of county territory surrounded by the city and the aging shops went practically untouched for decades. But when a developer submitted plans to build a large assisted living center on the site, the plans were unanimously approved by the city council, even though it could displace longtime merchants.
"We absolutely need more skilled nursing care, assisted living, and senior housing in all of San Jose and, I would say, all of the Bay Area," said Councilmember Dev Davis.
Davis represents the district and says it doesn't have to be an either/or proposition, especially since there will be retail space on the ground floor of the new development.
"What they're planning to do is still have retail space on the bottom," Davis said. "Hopefully, they will be able to retain those antique shops."
But as Massa looks at packing up, the moving, and especially the likely rent increases, he says it may not make sense for him at this stage of his life.
"I'm a very old person. I'm 76," Massa said. "So, where am I going to go to get another job?"
And then there are the customers. They worry, too, that another unique San Jose shopping experience will be slipping away.
"I think it's a shame," said customer Yvonne Giraudo. "Because of the high rent, they won't be able to open again. And look at what we'll miss."
"This has been my life all these years, and it's going to be a shame," Massa said.
Massa hopes to stay in business and is keeping an open mind to the coming changes. He's meeting with the other dealers who are all looking for some way to stay in business in the middle of a growing and changing city.
