SAN JOSE — A long-shuttered Orchard Supply Hardware store in south San Jose has been bought by a veteran Bay Area developer in a hopeful sign the site could land a new use.

The just-bought site at 5651 Cottle Road is in a neighborhood that includes many residential properties, numerous retail and restaurant offerings, and medical complexes.

Dollinger Properties, acting through an affiliate, bought the former store property for $7.3 million after an auction, documents filed Tuesday with the Santa Clara County recorder’s office show. The number of bidders wasn’t known.

The former Orchard Supply Hardware store closed in 2018. The building totals 44,600 square feet, according to commercial real estate listing sites. It occupies a 4.3-acre site that includes a large surface parking lot.

Dollinger’s real estate holdings are concentrated primarily in the Bay Area, according to its website.

In the South Bay, the company’s properties consist primarily of office and research buildings, with many located in San Jose. Dollinger, however, also owns several retail sites in the Bay Area.

Orchard Supply Hardware was founded in 1931 as a nonprofit cooperative. Over the decades, its owners have included Sears and Lowe’s. It was under the Lowe’s ownership that Orchard Supply filed for bankruptcy, which unleashed a wave of store closures.

In some instances, the shuttered Orchard Supply Hardware stores were reopened under a new brand, Outdoor Supply Hardware. The Cottle Road site was never reopened.