SAN JOSE — It’s a quiet, gray-colored warehouse that sits behind a wall of metal, a few inches thick and almost completely empty.
It’s the site of an industrial brick factory that once churned out nearly 2 million tons of bricks a year for more than 30 years.
The company closed its doors in 1989, and the factory sits on a narrow strip of land on the edge of downtown San Jose.
Now it’s home to a group of people who still own the property, but it’s a ghostly place.
The building’s former owners, the company that owned it, are no longer allowed to sell it, and officials are trying to keep it that way, said Mike Schoenfeld, the district attorney for San Jose County, which includes San Jose, which is the city of San Jose and the state capital.
They’ve been trying to get the building’s owners to pay rent, but he said they’ve been unable to do so.
In 2015, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed declared a moratorium on new construction, saying the city had become too reliant on foreign investors to keep pace with the growth in Silicon Valley.
The moratorium was lifted in March, but some buildings that once were a symbol of San Francisco’s tech industry have become a source of concern for the city and other cities in Silicon Beach.
The vacant brick factory sits behind the wall of a brick factory.
It sits next to a vacant home.
The building is the site where a once mighty brick factory once churns out nearly two million tons a year.
The company closed it’s doors in 1990, and is now home to the homeless.
The brick factory’s former owner, the firm that owned the factory, is no longer able to sell the building, and it’s now home, the city said in a statement.
The homeless man, who didn’t want to be identified, said he has lived in the warehouse for decades.
He said he didn’t pay rent when he moved in, but now that he’s homeless, he’s paying to live there.
The warehouse was once the headquarters of the company called EMT, the American-made and specialized-apparel company that is known for its high-end clothing, including jackets, shirts and sweaters.
The facility once churning out 2 million pounds of bricks per year had about 30 employees.
The business was sold to an industrial contractor called Renton Steel in the late 1990s, and Renton’s future remains unclear.
It’s unclear whether the firm will keep its current owners, or who might own the building now that it’s being demolished.
It also remains unclear whether, if the building is torn down, the workers will be compensated.
Schoenfield said there is no plan to seek compensation.
The San Jose Public Utilities Commission said in its most recent report on the building that it doesn’t have a lease or a rent payment due from the contractor, and said it was unable to find an owner for the building.
The city said the company has not provided any documentation.
Schoenfeld said he’s heard that some of the building has been rented out, but that it hasn’t been documented.
The city has said it has offered to help with rent payments to the former owners.
The utility commission said it’s working with the property owners to find a way to cover the costs of demolition, but there’s not enough money to cover those costs.
Contact Daniel Bice at 408-920-5011.
Follow him at Twitter.com/danielbice.