Chapel of the Valley Site May Get A Second Life

Rumors swirling around town that the now-abandoned at 20359 Lake Chabot Rd was purchased by  have turned out to be false.

Instead, according to Mike Tanzillo of MTC Commercial, who brokered the property for the former owner, Service Corporation International, the site was purchased by an unnamed independent private Bay Area corporation that intended to construct a medical office building there. 

While Tanzillo said he could not reveal the name of the private corporation that purchased the site or the investors behind it, he confirmed that there were doctors involved who hoped, at the time of purchase, to develop it into office space for themselves.

At the time of sale, an office building of 20,000 sq. ft. was envisioned for the site, Tanzillo said. He added he was not sure whether the project would still be used for that purpose or if so whether it would remain at that size. "It will depend on economic factors," he said.

"I spoke to the new owners a week or so ago," said Tanzillo, "and learned they had just received a demolition permit to tear the mortuary down. They had been waiting for the permit to be issued." Tanzillo said, at this point, he did not know when the building would be demolished.

Passers-by have noticed and .

Tanzillo said the reason the roof of the former mortuary is currently in such disrepair is that the fire department used the building for training purposes. He said it is quite common for fire departments to use abandoned buildings planned for demolition for training exercises.  

"The mortuary doesn't look like it does now just from sitting vacant," Tanzillo said.

Jessica McDunn, spokesperson for Service Corporation International confirmed the mortuary was sold in September 2009 and that the building had been vacant since early 2007. At that time funeral business formerly conducted at Chapel of the Valley was shifted over to , a sister facility also owned by Service Corporation International.

Taryn Cyr, the funeral director at Guerrero Mortuary, said files belonging to people who had pre-paid for funeral services in advance at Chapel of the Valley were transferred to her location. Because of ongoing redevelopment and construction of Eden Medical Center, Castro Valley residents quite naturally assumed Chapel of the Valley might have been sold to the hospital.

"I had heard the rumors myself, but it is not true," said Cindy Dove, communications manager for the hospital.

Jonnie Banks of Eden Township Hospital District also said it had not been purchased by the district.

According to Tanzillo, the mortuary property has a storied past.

"The original building was an ambulance company in the 1940s before the owner decided to turn it into a mortuary," said Tanzillo.

He described it as an unusual property to market.

"It really was not in condition to be reused," he said. "It needed to come down. When I first saw it the racks for dead bodies were still in place. There was a trap door to haul coffins up into the building and at one time it contained a 100-year-old antique embalming table."

Meanwhile work continues nearby at Eden Medical Center. Dove said if all goes as planned, the hospital will take the keys to the facility under construction in July 2012 and move patients into it in November, a year from now.

Whether or not a new medical office building or some other structure will be under construction at the former Chapel of the Valley site by then is yet to be seen.