Once there was a gas station. Then came a produce market, a coffee shop and juice bar, and for awhile the corner was the location of the San Jose Farmer's Market.

But now only the 10-year-old Alma Wash & Dry, the 4-year-old Taqueria Los Altos and a couple other businesses remain, and the landowner, Bob Vlahopouliotis, has succeeded in having the San Jose Planning Commission approve his hired architect's designs for a 10,700-square-foot retail and residential complex on the site after leveling the other buildings.

"It's going great," said architect Sal Caruso of Salvatore Caruso Design. "The project should take about two years; we're looking at about 2004."

According to a staff report from the San Jose Department of Planning, Building and Code Enforcement, Caruso's designs call for the commercial buildings to be demolished and replaced by a pair of residential and retail buildings reaching 35 feet in height. The residential stores will hold 14 units total. The designs also call for an open-space courtyard and a waterfall to separate the buildings.

Jose Antonio Villalta and his brother Ramon run the Alma Wash & Dry. Vlahopouliotis sold the property to Villalta about 12 years ago, but then bought it back.

The West Alma Avenue location has undergone a few additions since its last legal use as a gas station in 1955. However, those additions weren't altogether legal. Retail outlets and parking spaces didn't meet city standards. According to the planning department staff report, Vlahoupouliotis filed for a site redevelopment permit in 1984 in response to pressure from the planning department to bring the site up to code. After Vlahopouliotis failed to file plans with the department, however, the permit was ultimately denied.

Vlahopouliotis tried again in 1997 and was awarded a conditional-use permit to convert the gas station into an outdoor produce store.

Vlahopouliotis and the planning department finally agreed in 1999 to demolish the buildings on the site and start over. Caruso drew up plans and neighborhood meetings were held out of Ernesto Galarza Elementary School, where residents aired concerns about the number of units and the height of the two buildings. However, no one opposed the project when the planning commission approved the final plans Nov. 28.

"We haven't decided on a construction company yet," Caruso said. "None has been selected."

Villalta and Vlahopouliotis have had their differences along the way. Villalta said that Vlahopouliotis promised to include the shopping center's current merchants in the new retail-residential project but then reneged on that promise. Villalta said he hired a lawyer to confornt Vlahopouliotis about his true intentions.

"We were supposed to be included, but then we don't know" what's happening, Antonio Villalta said. "We hired a lawyer. We fought really hard, and we settled."

Villalta said he's still wary about the redevelopment. A major section of the shopping center was leveled about three months ago.

"So far it's just been destroy, destroy, destroy," Villalta said.

Michelle Ku and Julianne Ngan contributed to this report.