SAN JOSE — A Bay Area investor has bought an empty former Safeway store in a deal that could breathe new life into a downtown San Jose site that has been vacant for six years.

Babu Paturi, who is based at a residence in San Jose, paid $2 million in an all-cash deal to buy the site at 100 South Second St., according to documents filed on Sept. 8 with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.

Paturi is the manager of at least one LLC, state and county public documents show.

The new owner’s plans for the site at the corner of South Second Street and East San Fernando Street weren’t immediately clear. The property is on the ground floor of a 197-unit residential tower and is near San Jose State University.

The transaction included other parcels below the housing units. One of the other jus

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