After four years, two court rulings and two votes by the San Jose City Council, Lowe's can move toward demolishing a historic building to erect a big-box store on a former IBM research campus - but not without a price.

As part of the agreement with the city, Lowe's will contribute $300,000 toward funding for historic preservation projects. The city and the redevelopment agency will each contribute the same amount, using future sales tax and property tax revenue from the Lowe's store.

"It's a significant amount of money," Planning Director Joe Horwedel said.

The $300,000 contribution also is closer to the $1million to $2million the planning staff had recommended that Lowe's contribute to make up for the loss of a historic resource. Lowe's had originally offered $10,000.

The new Lowe's store on the former IBM research campus at Poughkeepsie and Cottle roads is expected to generate $500,000 in sales tax and an additional $2million in other taxes.

It was still unclear Thursday whether all the legal steps had been taken to satisfy a court order that forced the city to rewrite an environmental report and rescind its original vote that allowed Lowe's to tear down Building 25. The building is noted for its architecture and the fact that it was home to research behind an important technological invention, the "flying head disc drive."

"We have done everything the judge asked us to do,"

Horwedel said after consulting with the city attorney's office.
But Susan Brandt-Hawley, an attorney for Preservation Action Council San Jose, which sued the city in 2003 to stop the demolition, maintains the city council's 8-1 vote late Tuesday must first be reviewed by Judge Leslie Nichols.

"They have to show how they've now complied with the law, that they have shown there are no feasible alternatives to demolition," she said of city officials.

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