SAN JOSE — A downtown San Jose site that is slated to become a big residential tower has been bought by a housing developer from England that is attempting to establish a beachhead in the United States.

Garden Gate Tower, a residential highrise, was approved a few months ago by the San Jose City Council, and now the new owner of the site is London-based Scape, a developer that specializes in student housing.

The property is located near the corner of South First Street and East Reed Street and at present is a surface parking lot.

“This is encouraging,” said Mark Ritchie, president of Ritchie Commercial, a real estate firm. “You are seeing more kinds of investors getting interested in downtown San Jose.”

Acting through an affiliate, Scape paid $16.5 million for the site at 600 S. First Street, documents filed with Santa Clara County officials on March 4 showed.

“At first the development money in downtown San Jose came from the locals, then we saw institutional money, and now we are seeing international money coming in,” Ritchie said.

Scape San Jose bought the parcel from Garden Gate Tower, which is an affiliate controlled by veteran South Bay development firm KT Urban, according to the county files. Public corporation files show that Andrew Flynn, who is the primary executive for the Scape operations in the U.S., is the principal manager for Scape San Jose.

To finance the property purchase, Scape San Jose obtained a $15 million mortgage from MREF REIT Lender 12, which in turn is controlled by New York City-based Mack Real Estate Group, a major realty investor.

The San Jose City Council last November approved the 27-story highrise, a slender tower that would sprout next to Interstate 280. The highrise would include 290 residential units, 4,800 square feet of ground-floor retail, and an open area and gathering spaces on the rooftop.

An estimated 28 dwellings would be set aside as affordable in the housing tower, which would also include studios, one-bedroom units, and two-bedroom units, according to San Jose officials.

The primary focus of British developer Scape is housing for students, according to the company’s website.

“Scape is an inspirational place for students to live and work,” the Scape website post said. “We’ll make sure you have everything you need to feel more safe, calm and at home than any other student accommodation out there.”

Ahead of its push into the United States, Scape indicated it was seeking development sites around the country with a focus on cities with major academic institutions.

Still, the company’s current venture in Boston, the site of its first U.S. project, suggests that Scape is nimble enough to switch gears if confronted by community foes.

During the summer of 2019, Scape had proposed the development of a 15-story student housing tower about a block from the Fenway Park baseball stadium. But fierce opposition prompted Scape to pivot away from student housing. Now, market-rate apartments are proposed for the site in the Boston Fenway area.

In San Jose, the Garden Gate Tower would be located in the city’s bustling SoFA — South First Area — neighborhood.

A growing number of restaurants, bars, nightspots, entertainment outlets, and live performance sites have sprouted in downtown San Jose’s SoFA community in recent years.

“People like being in that neighborhood,” Ritchie said. “The Pierce (apartment complex) has been successful. There’s a lot going on there. It’s a very nice area.”