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https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/..._news_headline

Downtown San Jose's new real estate star: Gary Dillabough
Gary Dillabough always wanted to work in real estate and development, but first took a detour through Silicon Valley’s tech, startup and venture capital worlds before becoming one of the most prolific downtown San Jose real estate investors in recent history.

To be clear, he hasn’t left his past professions behind, even as he and his investment partners scooped up properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars over the past year and a half and are now embarking on multiple building rehabs and redevelopments. Instead, he’s trying to integrate the development, VC and tech worlds, mixing green building and small-scale investing technologies he invests in into his building projects. In true tech culture fashion, he eschews the title of developer for less formal monikers, like "urban community builder."

“Fortunately, a lot of the jobs I've had, whether it was in real estate or in technology, … there are all kinds of different components that I think are allowing me to see the equation just a little differently than a traditional developer,” he said in a recent interview.

Dillabough has amassed large pieces of San Jose over the past year or so, but is still a bit of a mystery in the local development world. Along with partnering with various developers, he also leads a company called Urban Community along with co-founder Jeff Arrillaga.

Among the properties he's working on: the old Camera 12 theater along Second Street, where he and investment partner Don Imwalle are aiming to bring in a new entertainment use. He also owns the nine-story building at 152 N. Third St., where WeWork is gearing up to open its newest San Jose location.

Meanwhile, his company is also working on new plans for the three-acre Valley Title property in the city’s SoFA district, which is ripe for redevelopment. The group is working on re-entitling the planned Museum Place development and expansion of the current Tech Museum at Park Avenue and South Market Street.

But the property that has received the most fanfare is the historic Bank of Italy building, which he purchased in late 2017 a limited liability company with an address that leads back to WeWork’s New York office. He’s since picked up most of the low-slung, parking-filled block around the nearly 100-year-old building at the corner of North First and East Santa Clara streets.

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SV Business Journal talks about Gary Dillabough, his investments downtown, and an interview with the guy. I'm hoping the movie theater opens up again soon.