Indian American Small Businessman in San Jose Becomes Victim of Eminent Domain Set in Stone

A San Jose granite business owner is rushing to salvage his livelihood as the Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) moves to take possession of his property through eminent domain for a BART extension project in Silicon Valley.

Sridhar Kollareddy, owner of Silicon Valley Granite located at 125 N. 30th St., was ordered by Santa Clara County Superior Court to vacate his premises by last week, according to reports from San Jose Spotlight. The property is slated to become part of the future 28th Street and Little Portugal BART station.

Kollareddy has operated Silicon Valley Granite for two decades, importing and selling thousands of granite slabs used for countertops and monuments. According to CBS News, his three-acre facility houses approximately 7,000 massive stone slabs, thousands of polished monuments, and about half a million tiles imported from around the world.

“I moved to this country in 1998. I’ve been doing this all my life,” Kollareddy told CBS News. “It’s my passion, it’s my livelihood. That’s what I do all my life. I don’t know anything else.”

The court order, issued on April 28, stated that any inventory remaining after the evacuation deadline would be considered “abandoned,” potentially costing Kollareddy millions of dollars in lost merchandise. His family reports that despite working with extra crews, they’ve only managed to relocate about 5% of the inventory to temporary storage on friends’ property.

“Each one of these slabs can be hundreds, if not over a thousand pounds,” Praneeth Kollareddy, the owner’s son, explained to CBS News. “Moving it requires very special skill, specialized equipment. It’s impossible to move this in any kind of short timeline.”

Kollareddy claims he has been searching for a new location since last year but has been unable to find an affordable site that can accommodate his specialized inventory.

VTA Claims Adequate Notice Was Provided

VTA officials dispute Kollareddy’s claims about insufficient time to relocate. A spokesperson for the transit agency told San Jose Spotlight that businesses were informed they might need to move as early as 2020, and Silicon Valley Granite had agreed to vacate by March 2024. VTA extended this deadline to April 30, according to their statement.

“The business owner was given two separate deadlines, beginning almost two years in advance, and chose not to leave the property or file for relocation reimbursement,” the VTA spokesperson said.

Kollareddy claims he has been searching for a new location since last year but has been unable to find an affordable site that can accommodate his specialized inventory. According to CBS News, one consultant estimated that moving all the material could take five months and cost $1.5 million.

Kollareddy and his attorney, Glenn Block, planned to file an appeal against the court order, according to San Jose Spotlight. The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office would be responsible for evicting Kollareddy if he fails to comply with the order, though Sgt. Russell Davis indicated the office had not yet received notice of a court-ordered eviction.

“Right now, this is literally just a last-ditch effort to save my dad’s livelihood,” Anisha Kollareddy, the owner’s daughter, told CBS News.

Part of Larger BART Expansion

The eminent domain action is part of VTA’s second phase of its BART expansion project, which aims to connect BART services to Silicon Valley. The project has been decades in the making and has experienced significant budget increases. VTA’s legal actions began in 2021 and are displacing numerous downtown San Jose businesses to make room for ventilation systems and emergency exits from the BART tunnels.

Kollareddy emphasized that he supports the BART project and was prepared to relocate after settling for moving costs and other expenses. However, he claims VTA went back and forth on the settlement for years before offering to cover moving costs if he vacated within three weeks.

“I mean, they’re stealing me,” Kollareddy told CBS News. “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.”

The Kollareddy family has stated they are not opposed to the new BART station and are willing to move, but they need more time and resources to properly relocate their unique inventory.

(Top photo, screen grab from KRON4)