SAN JOSE | Projects: Under Construction, Approved, and Proposed

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Redevelopment Approved At 550 East Brokaw Road In San Jose



BY: YIMBY TEAM 4:30 AM ON MARCH 3, 2023

Last time since SF YIMBY’s update, the redevelopment project has been approved for construction at 550 East Brokaw Road in North San Jose, Santa Clara County. The project proposal includes the development of seven buildings offering almost two million square feet of office space and a public park. The site former housed Fry’s Electronics, a national big-box store selling electronics that dramatically closed all locations in February of 2021. Demolition will be required for the existing structure and 274 cars.

Caracol Property Owner LLC is listed as the property owner. Bay West Development is responsible for the proposal, with architectural designs by Gensler.

The project site is a parcel spanning an area of 19.7 acres. The project will create seven office buildings and two parking structures spanning a total of 3.7 million square feet with 1.9 million square feet of offices and 1.6 million square feet for parking for 5,385 cars. Terraces spread across the project will total 84,750 square feet and additional bicycle parking for 410 bicycles. Each office building will rise eight floors to approximately 90-100 feet above street level. The structures will be asymmetrically aligned, cloistering around a landscaped pathway with shading and seating. The public space will be improved with landscaped pathways.

https://sfyimby.com/2023/03/redevelo...-san-jose.html

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Nice to see there will be a museum there as well.

Adobe opens Founders Tower in fresh downtown San Jose expansion
New highrise bolster's tech titan's San Jose investments and commitments



By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: March 8, 2023 at 6:00 a.m.

SAN JOSE — Adobe’s newly opened tower in downtown San Jose is more than a skyline landmark: The highrise symbolizes the tech titan’s push to bolster job growth and deepen its investments in the Bay Area’s largest city.

The 18-story highrise is the fourth office tower in Adobe’s headquarters campus in downtown San Jose and is perched next to State Route 87 at 333 West San Fernando Street.

The highrise is named Founders Tower after John Warnock and Charles “Chuck” Geschke, who in 1982 co-founded the company in the garage of Warnock’s Los Altos home, adjacent to the Adobe Creek.

“Our Founders Tower is an amazing fourth addition to our downtown San Jose headquarters campus,” said Gloria Chen, Adobe’s chief people officer and executive vice president of employee experience. “We are really excited about the building and the design.” The all-electric tower totals 1.25 million square feet, including the highrise and a parking garage. The office portion totals 700,000 square feet.

When people walk into the building lobby, they are greeted by Adobe’s museum on one side and a cafe on the other. The restaurant is slated to open after construction is complete on a bridge that will span West San Fernando Street and connect Founders Tower to the three office highrises on the other side of the road.

Founders Tower was crafted to accommodate big meetings with hundreds of participants, smaller gathering areas for teams, locations where just a few people could collaborate, or spots where people can work alone, either in enclosed booths or open seats.

“For Adobe, people have always been our greatest asset,” Chen said. “Our company is really about powering human creativity and powering human experiences. We have taken a real human-centered and experiential design approach to the whole building.”

They’ve taken the same approach with the museum that will immerse visitors in Adobe’s past, present and future technologies.

“The museum is on the ground floor so we can immediately engage the public,” said Eric Kline, Adobe’s global director of workplace experience. “You will see some of the original products and equipment. The museum is a combination of artifacts and storytelling.”

The new tower enables Adobe to double down on its downtown San Jose presence.

About 4,000 Adobe employees are expected to be able to work in the new tower — allowing Adobe to double its downtown workforce over time. Adobe eventually expects to employ about 7,000 people in downtown San Jose.

The largest distinct meeting area in the new tower is called Town Hall, an auditorium with seating to accommodate 500 to 600 people. The room can be left open for other workers to see as they pass by — or join in.

“That makes the meetings feel more organic,” Kline said.

...

Other major focal points in the tower are on the seventh floor, which features a cafe that totals 50,000 square feet — about the size of a medium-sized office building — as well as community spaces for employees. An array of cuisines from several parts of the globe are available, enabling the cafe to serve as a further gathering area.

“Food is the original form of social networking,” Kline said. “For as long as we know, people would frequently gather to share meals and enjoy food together. We know that food is very important in the process to get people together.”

The big cafe is “packed” during the lunch periods, an Adobe spokesperson said.

Adobe employees have already begun moving into the tower, whose 18 levels are opening gradually.

The new tower, in a further sign of the modern approach to the company’s work areas, was built with an eye toward wide-open spaces. The floors in the new tower average about 60,000 square feet. The three towers in the older part of the Adobe campus average about 25,000 square feet.

Adobe’s new highrise also features the work of a number of artists from the city, an additional sign of the company’s attempts to maintain — and strengthen — its already robust bonds with San Jose.

“We were among the first major tech companies to plant roots here in San Jose,” Chen said. “We are here for the long haul.”

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...ate-tech-jobs/

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And the photos:











https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...ate-tech-jobs/

[JManc]

I see Adobe is making bank on all their forced subscription models for their software. /rant

[homebucket]

An update on SAN JOSE | 200 Park Ave | 300 FT | 19 FLOORS.







PC: homebucket

[homebucket]

And the Adobe Founders Tower pedestrian bridge:



PC: homebucket

[Chisouthside]

That 200 park building is nice density but its a shame they tore down the brutalist court building that was there before.

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Big things coming soon to SJSU.

SJSU vision may revamp downtown San Jose campus, add housing towers
Wide-ranging changes could dramatically transform university



By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: March 27, 2023 at 5:30 a.m.

SAN JOSE — Housing towers, new dining spots and hundreds of residences for San Jose State University students are in the works as part of a wide-ranging plan to dramatically revamp the college’s downtown campus.

University officials are eyeing new development projects both on the campus and about a block from the college, according to plans on file with the school.

“San Jose State University is undertaking a renewed campus master plan to guide the physical development of the Main Campus, South Campus and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories,” said Michelle Smith-McDonald, senior media relations director with the university.

The campus master plan’s primary focus is to create plenty more places for students to live, according to university officials.

“The university is prioritizing the creation of housing for students, faculty and staff,” Smith-McDonald said.

Several towers would sprout on the existing campus and stretch along East San Fernando Street between South Fourth Street and South Tenth Street, a general site plan shows. The plan indicates the row of towers on San Fernando Street would rise adjacent to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library.

Overall, the university is either completing or actively planning four major projects as part of the college’s transformation and modernization:

- Campus Village 3, a big expansion of the existing student housing on campus, a project that would add at least 1,000 new student beds upon completion
- Alquist Redevelopment, a replacement of the Alquist state building that’s next to Paseo de San Antonio to create up to 1,000 residential units in a new tower about a block from the university.
- The Interdisciplinary Science Building, which will be the university’s newest academic facility. Totaling 164,000 square feet, the building will focus on faculty-led student research and will contain teaching labs, research labs and collaborative spaces. The science building is slated to open in the fall of this year.
- Spartan Athletics Center at CEFCU Stadium near the corner of South Seventh Street and East Alma Avenue. The modern sports complex totals 55,000 square feet and will accommodate the football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer teams. It will also provide state-of-the-art facilities for all 22 of the university’s sports teams. The center will open this summer.

Campus Village 3, whose principal component is new student housing, is poised to usher in the most visible physical changes on the campus.

“The next planned addition to SJSU’s campus housing brings more Spartans to the core of San Jose’s vibrant urban community,” a post on the college’s site states. The post adds, “1,007 new student beds, a welcome center and a 900-person capacity dining hall will replace Washburn Hall, Joe West Hall and the older dining commons.”

Campus Village 3 is also expected to add 517 affordable student beds to the university’s housing totals.

The first phase of this new housing village is slated to consist of a housing tower with 260 units. The second phase is expected to be a building with 171 units. A welcome center will be on the ground floor of phase one.

Construction of the first two phases is due to begin in the summer of 2024 and should be complete by the summer of 2027, according to a university post.

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...d-real-estate/

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And the renderings:







https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...d-real-estate/

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A small update for Icon-Echo.

Downtown San Jose housing tower with nearly 400 homes gets revamp
New design appears brighter, shows rooftop gathering areas



By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: March 28, 2023 at 9:30 a.m.

SAN JOSE — The plan for a proposed San Jose housing tower that would contain several hundred homes is being revamped with a brighter look, a design change for which the project’s developer is seeking a fresh set of city approvals.

The tower, known as Echo, is being developed by real estate firm Urban Catalyst at the corner of North Fourth Street and East St. John Street downtown.

Urban Catalyst has headed back to the city to seek approvals for the new look and changed exterior.

“We have redesigned the exterior skin of the Echo building,” Erik Hayden, Urban Catalyst’s founder and managing partner. “We always strive to incorporate best-in-class design into our projects and this new exterior does that.”



The changes conform to the footprint, or massing, of the building that had been previously approved by city officials, according to Hayden. The new exterior also features additional solar shading to increase the building’s energy efficiency, he added.

...

The new concepts for the residential project also include an image of outdoor gathering areas on an upper level of the housing high-rise.

“Echo’s amenities package includes a rooftop lounge with 360-degree views, couches and fire pits, as well as an interior office area that features a conference room, a library, desks and phone booths,” Hayden said.

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...state-housing/

[homebucket]

Updated specs:
- ? ft, 22 floors
- 220 units (all of which are affordable, and reserved for people ages 55+)
- Parking for 0 cars and 54 bicycles

The site:
https://goo.gl/maps/jJpEsvximiU2FH7F8

This was previously listed at 268 ft and 25 floors according to SF YIMBY.

Senior high-rise coming to downtown San Jose
by Joseph Geha
MARCH 29, 2023

A historic two-story building in downtown San Jose will be converted into a high-rise apartment tower for hundreds of older adults, following a green light from city leaders.

On Tuesday, the San Jose City Council unanimously approved plans from Roygbiv Real Estate Development to gut the Realty Building at 19 N. 2nd St. while maintaining its facade and part of its roof, and build a 22-story tower on the same 0.22-acre plot. All 220 apartments are planned to be rented at below market-rate prices and will be reserved for people aged 55 and older, city reports said.

...

The olive-green Realty Building was designated as a city historic landmark in 2001 and sits near the corner of Santa Clara Street, where Roygbiv has also proposed another apartment tower.

The apartments will be below market-rate, but on the upper end of the affordable housing scales. Roughly 25 apartments will be priced for residents earning up to 60% of the area median income, currently about $71,000 annually in Santa Clara County for one person, the developer said. The remaining apartments will be priced as affordable to people earning more than that, up to 120% of the area median income—about $141,000 annually for one person.

https://sanjosespotlight.com/senior-...town-san-jose/

[dirt patch]

interesting

[homebucket]

Nice to see West San Carlos-Stevens Creek continuing to densify. This thoroughfare could be a prime candidate for a BRT or light rail line extension, or maybe even BART.

Affordable home project is being eyed near big San Jose malls
Retail sites would be bulldozed to clear way for housing complex



By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: March 31, 2023 at 12:45 p.m.

SAN JOSE — New affordable homes are being eyed near San Jose’s primary shopping malls, a project that could sprout in what city officials hope is an emerging and vibrant new corridor.

The proposed project would add 94 affordable homes at the northeast corner of West San Carlos Street and Cleveland Avenue, according to documents on file with city officials. The proposed project is located a short distance from the Westfield Valley Fair mall and Santana Row.

The development site has addresses ranging from 1921 through 1929 West San Carlos Street as well as 30 through 58 Cleveland Avenue, the planning documents show.

Los Angeles-based real estate company Path Ventures, which is active in the development of affordable housing, has proposed the project.



The developer intends to bulldoze five buildings at that corner to clear the way for the new project. At present, the occupants of the buildings include a piano store and other merchants at 1921 West San Carlos.

“Path Villas at the Row is a 94-unit affordable, mixed-income housing development service families in the West San Carlos Urban Village Plan Area,” Path Ventures stated in its development proposal. It envisions a project that could accommodate a wide array of future residents.

“The development contains a variety of unit sizes to accommodate families and individuals earning between 30% to 80% of the area median income,” Path Ventures stated in the project proposal. “The development also provides housing units and support spaces for individuals experiencing homelessness.”

The project also envisions potential retail uses.

“Commercial retail space is provided at the ground level facing West San Carlos Street at Cleveland Avenue, to activate the development’s corner,” Path Ventures stated in the proposal.

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...estate-retail/

[homebucket]

A BART extension like this would make a lot of sense, connecting De Anza with a high density residential, commercial, and employment corridor.



https://twitter.com/alfred_twu/statu...540221442?s=20

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Downtown San Jose office tower could convert to apartments or hotel
Office slump spurs pivot to new uses for prominent tower



By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 6, 2023 at 7:55 a.m.

SAN JOSE — An office tower at a prime downtown San Jose site may be converted to other uses, including housing, a fresh sign of economic shifts in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and an uneven return to the workplace.

The 10-story high-rise at the intersection of First and Santa Clara streets, originally built in 1910, is a former Bank of the West building owned by DivcoWest, a veteran real estate firm.

In recent years, DivcoWest undertook a dramatic transformation of the interior of the tower that revamped the structure as a creative office building meant to appeal to tech companies or advanced technology startups seeking a trendy urban space.

DivcoWest now seeks a new mission for the tower, which is located at one of downtown San Jose’s most prominent intersections.

“An existing office building is being studied for conversion to three different non-office uses,” DivcoWest states in a preliminary filing with the San Jose Planning Department.

The three new potential uses could be multifamily residential apartments, co-living residential units, or a hotel. Co-living projects sometimes feature shared facilities such as kitchens or bathrooms.

“This is the wave of the future for antiquated older office buildings that might not be filled again for decades if left alone,” said David Taxin, partner with Meacham/Oppenheimer, a commercial real estate firm. “This is a fantastic solution for the housing crisis.”

The preliminary review is a way for the project owner to gauge the views and opinions of political leaders, city staffers and property neighbors regarding a development proposal. Put another way, preliminary applications are trial balloons.

DivcoWest would also need to determine whether a full-scale revamp to housing or a hotel would be economically feasible.

“Conversion is very expensive but still cheaper than putting up a brand new building,” Taxin said.

This preliminary proposal for a new use for the tower arrives at a time when office markets in the Bay Area and numerous other metro centers nationwide and globally are burdened by fast-rising vacancy rates.

Many employees have continued to work from home in the wake of the pandemic, leaving office buildings, especially in downtown districts, burdened with high vacancy levels.

Tech companies, alarmed by a slump in their business prospects and revenue, have begun to retrench and recalibrate their hiring and even embark on widening job cuts, a process that in turn has curbed their appetite for office space.

In contrast, the entire Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, is confronted by a housing shortage.

“The demand for housing in San Jose and Silicon Valley writ large is showing no sign of abating,” said Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers, a commercial real estate firm. “This is great news for downtown and for this long-dormant former Bank of the West headquarters.”

A transformation and revamp of the tower would require significant work, according to the preliminary application.

“Conversion to new uses would require an architectural remodel as well as structural and a mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems remodel,” the planning documents state.

Some things are certain, regardless of the future use of the building. The tower occupies an enviable location at a busy downtown San Jose intersection. In the coming years, BART intends to build and open a train station just across the street from the tower’s front door.

A short distance to the west, Adobe has opened a new office tower for thousands of its workers.

Beyond the Adobe campus, Google is planning the development of a new transit-oriented neighborhood near the Diridon train station and SAP Center.

And the characteristics of the building could lend themselves to a housing high-rise, in Goddard’s view.

“The building’s glass lines lend themselves well to individual apartments and the basement and large patio are great amenity spaces for future residents,” Goddard said. “The exposed brick and high ceilings will make an interesting and unique living space.”

More conversion efforts could be in the works in San Jose, which means city bureaucrats will have to be nimble to accommodate the requests, said Bob Staedler, principal executive with land-use consultant Silicon Valley Synergy.

https://www.siliconvalley.com/2023/0...-estate-build/

[homebucket]

Bad news but not surprising.

Google's 80-Acre San Jose Mega-Campus Is on Hold as Company Reckons With Economic Slowdown
By Jennifer Elias,CNBC • Published 45 mins ago

- Google has halted construction of its proposed 80-acre campus in San Jose, California, after the first demolition phase.
- Some sources close to the development told CNBC that the company doesn't have plans to revive the project in the near future.
- CFO Ruth Porat said on the company's last earnings call that Google expected to incur costs of about $500 million in the first quarter to reduce global office space.

In June 2021, Google won approval to build an 80-acre campus, spanning 7.3 million square feet of office space, in San Jose, California, the third-largest city in the country's most populous state. The estimated economic impact: $19 billion.

The timing couldn't have been worse.

A decade-long bull market in technology had just about run its course, and the following year would mark the worst for tech stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. Rising interest rates and recessionary concerns led advertisers to reel in spending, shrinking Google's growth and, for the first time in the company's history, forcing management to implement dramatic cost cuts.

The city of San Jose may now be paying the price. What was poised to be a mega-campus called "Downtown West," with thousands of new housing units and 15 acres of public parks, is largely a demolition zone at risk of becoming a long-term eyesore and economic zero. CNBC has learned that, as part of Google's downsizing that went into effect early this year, the company has gutted its development team for the San Jose campus.

The construction project, which was supposed to break ground before the end of 2023, has been put on pause, and no plan to restart construction has been communicated to contractors, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to non-disclosure agreements. While sources are optimistic that a campus will be built at some point and said Google representatives have expressed a commitment to it, they're concerned the project may not reach the scale promised in the original master plan.

The Mercury News, one of Silicon Valley's main newspapers, previously reported that Google was reassessing its timeline. Sources told CNBC that the company started signaling to contractors late last year that the project could face delays and changes.

In February, LendLease, the lead developer for the project, laid off 67 employees, including several community engagement managers, according to filings viewed by CNBC. Senior development managers, a head of business operations and other executives were among those let go.

Last month, Google also removed construction updates from its website for the project, according to internal correspondence viewed by CNBC.

LendLease didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alphabet-owned Google is embarking on its most severe cost cuts in its almost two decades on the public market. The company said in January that it was eliminating 12,000 jobs, representing about 6% of its workforce, to reckon with slowing sales growth after headcount swelled before and during the Covid pandemic.

About a year ago, Google announced that it would invest nearly $10 billion in at least 20 key real estate projects in 2022. By then, the company had already completed much of its multi-year land grab of downtown San Jose for the future campus.

Money coming 'when the cranes are in the air'
Things changed in a hurry. On Alphabet's fourth-quarter earnings call in February, finance chief Ruth Porat said the company expected to incur costs of about $500 million in the first quarter to reduce global office space, and she warned that other real estate charges were possible in the future.

While the tech industry broadly is struggling to adapt to a post-Covid world that appears to be more hybrid in nature and less centered around large campuses, Google is in a particularly precarious spot because of its massive commitment, financial and otherwise, to altering the landscape of a major urban area.

"We're working to ensure our real estate investments match the future needs of our hybrid workforce, our business and our communities," a Google spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "While we're assessing how to best move forward with Downtown West, we're still committed to San Jose for the long term and believe in the importance of the development."

Google spent several years planning for the San Jose complex and invested significant resources in winning over the local community. Opposition in some corners was so fierce that, in 2019, activists chained themselves to chairs inside San Jose's City Hall over the decision to sell public land to Google. A multi-year effort to address community concerns ended with support from some of the project's stiffest early opponents.

To win over the locals, Google designated more than half its campus to public use and offered up a $200 million community benefits package that included displacement funds, job placement training, and power for community leaders to influence how that money would be spent.

While some community benefits have already been delivered, the bulk is to be dispersed upon the office space development. Google also promised to build 15,000 residential units in Silicon Valley, with 25% of them considered "affordable," a critical issue in an area with one of the highest homeless populations in the country, according to government statistics. Some 4,000 of those housing units were set to be built at Downtown West.

"We all originally knew that it's going to be a long-term plan," San Jose councilmember Omar Torres, who represents the downtown area, told San Jose Spotlight in February. "But yes, it's definitely concerning that a lot of the money is coming when the cranes are in the air."

The demolition phase of the project took out a number of historic San Jose landmarks and forced the relocation of others. A 74-year-old dancing pig sign for Stephen's Meat Products had to be moved, and only a small part of an old bakery building remains.

Patty's Inn, an 88-year-old beloved pub, didn't survive the teardown.

"This is a dive bar, but I never thought of it as a dive bar. It was just Patty's Inn," Jim Nielsen, an executive at RBC Wealth Management and longtime patron of the bar, told the Mercury News at the time. "It's tough to see these places go away because they can't be replaced."

The new campus was expected to bring some 20,000 jobs to the city.

Empty swaths of land
CNBC visited the site a couple times in April during the normal workday, to see swaths of land where old buildings have been replaced by cranes, tractors and other construction equipment in a fenced-off area. Nobody was working on site.

Construction projects of this scale take a long time. Google had originally said it would likely need between 10 and 30 years to build out the campus, so it still has a significant cushion to resume development.

LendLease said in 2019 that it struck a $15 billion deal with Google to spend the next 10 to 15 years redeveloping the company's landholdings in San Jose as well as nearby Sunnyvale and Mountain View, where Google is headquartered.

“LendLease will play a key role in helping deliver at least 15,000 new homes on our land,” David Radcliffe, Google's real estate lead at the time, said in a press release.

But Radcliffe left Google in late 2022 after 16 years at the company. He was replaced by Scott Foster, who previously led global real estate for financial firm RBC. Sources familiar with Google's real estate projects described Foster as someone who is expected to be more conservative in spending, and more likely to slim down the scale of the campus, especially amid cost-cutting efforts.

With construction at the site currently stalled, San Jose sits without an expected anchor tenant in an empty swath of its downtown. Dozens of vendors and contractors that were expecting work are focusing on other projects as they wait to hear what happens next.

The mood is vastly different than it was less than two years ago, when Gov. Gavin Newsom stood beside Google Senior Vice President Kent Walker at an event in San Jose, ahead of a city council meeting that would determine whether the project got approved. Newsom used the occasion to sign SB 7, a bill to speed up construction of housing and development projects.

Newsom and officials cited Google’s proposed mega-campus several times as an example of the state’s economic “comeback” from the Covid pandemic.

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/busi...wdown/3211346/

[homebucket]

Not the most aesthetically pleasing but the specs are good, and it's right next to SJSU.

The specs:
- 274 ft, 25 floors
- 210 units (all of which are affordable, and reserved for people ages 55+)
- 1,500 sq ft for retail
- Parking for 168 cars and 70 bicycles

The site:
https://goo.gl/maps/UDXsD4tgE5qQLKmd9

EIR Published For 25-Story Apartments In Downtown San Jose



BY: ANDREW NELSON 5:30 AM ON JUNE 2, 2023

The Supplemental Environmental Impact Report has been published for the 25-story residential infill at 439 South 4th Street in Downtown San Jose, Santa Clara County. The filing will create 210 new homes from the half-acre property close to the SJSU campus. 439 S. Fourth Street, LLC, associated with Nelly Amas, is the project applicant.

The 274-foot tall structure will yield around 448,470 square feet, with 376,320 square feet for housing, 1,500 square feet for retail, and 72,150 square feet for the five-level garage. Parking will be included from the basement to level four, with a capacity for 168 cars and 70 bicycles.

Details about unit size composition have not been included in the available plans, but documents say the average unit will have three and a half bedrooms, suggesting the target resident will be students of the nearby SJSU campus. Residential amenities will include a community room, dog park, common open space, pool deck, and a fitness center.

Santa Clara-based Salvatore Caruso Design Corporation is the project architect. The exterior will be articulated with a corner focal point rising up from the eighth floor to the parapet above the rooftop deck. The tower is expected to rise around the same height as the Mark. Construction could rise across from the three-tower SoFA By Nabr project by Urban Community and Terrascape Ventures.

...

The 0.52-acre property is located between East San Salvador Street and East William Street, across from the southwest corner of the San Jose State University campus. Demolition will be required of the existing three-story apartment complex and two-story home. Construction is expected to last around 23 months from groundbreaking to completion.

https://sfyimby.com/2023/06/eir-publ...-san-jose.html

[homebucket]

And the renderings:







https://sfyimby.com/2023/06/eir-publ...-san-jose.html

[homebucket]

Historic downtown San Jose office building eyed for housing high-rise
Residential conversions attract attention amid woozy office market



By GEORGE AVALOS | gavalos@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: June 8, 2023 at 11:40 a.m.

SAN JOSE — The iconic Bank of Italy office tower in downtown San Jose may gain a new mission as a housing high-rise, a conversion being discussed against the forbidding backdrop of an office market that continues to wobble.

Converting the high-profile, nearly century-old tower to residential units could be a winner for the property, considering the shortage of housing in the Bay Area and the post-pandemic woes afflicting the regional office market.

Constructed in 1926 in a Renaissance Revival style, the Bank of Italy tower features smaller floors and cozy offices. Each office enjoys a separate window — which means plenty of sunlight for every prospective residence.

“This could be a spectacular conversion,” said Mark Ritchie, president of Ritchie Commercial, a real estate firm. “The small floor plates in this classic, beautiful building really lend themselves to residential conversions.”

The principal owners of the landmark building have held discussions at San Jose City Hall regarding the concept, according to several sources, including some who have direct knowledge of plans to convert the 14-story structure.

The building is owned by an alliance of local development firm Urban Community and Westbank, a top-notch developer with a global reach. Bay Area real estate entrepreneurs Gary Dillabough and Jeff Arrillaga head up Urban Community.

Dillabough, Arrillaga and Westbank declined to comment or couldn’t be reached to discuss the project.

Real estate and property experts said the Bank of Italy building at 12 South First St. next to East Santa Clara Street makes a lot of sense as a housing high-rise.

“If this came to pass, that would add yet more affluent professionals to the downtown San Jose market,” said Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers, a commercial real estate firm.

Despite the current maladies affecting the office market in the Bay Area, experts contend the ailing sector will eventually recuperate, which in turn would intensify the demand for office space in downtown San Jose.

“When the office markets start their inevitable rebound, downtown San Jose housing will provide a rich vein of talent for urban employers and those who seek the excitement of an urban environment but want to flee the safety problems in San Francisco,” Goddard said.

The concept of office-to-housing conversions makes sense, said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.

“Residential conversions will create more vibrancy in downtown San Jose,” Staedler said. “If the Bank of Italy is no longer an office building, that will improve the office vacancy rate and create more demand for offices. Residential conversions need to be taken more seriously.”

Across the roadway, at 2 West Santa Clara St. next to South First Street, DivcoWest has undertaken a dramatic renovation and revamp of a 10-story office tower constructed in 1910. DivcoWest has filed a very preliminary proposal with San Jose city planners to explore non-office uses in the prominent tower. The three new potential uses could be multifamily residential apartments, co-living residential units, or a hotel. Co-living projects sometimes feature shared facilities such as kitchens or bathrooms.

The discussions could mean that two long-time office towers across the street from each other might both become housing high-rises.

Additional housing also might bolster efforts to further spur the revival of the restaurant, retail, cocktail lounge and bar scene in downtown San Jose in the wake of the economic dislocations induced by the coronavirus.

“We need more residents, we need more employees, we need more business travelers and visitors, we need more students in the downtown,” said Scott Knies, a consultant and former executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association.

Dillabough and Arrillaga — by signing a slew of restaurants, bars and other merchants in the Fountain Alley building next to the Bank of Italy tower — are attempting to create a more vibrant scene in downtown San Jose.

What’s more, additional restaurants and drinking establishments have begun to sprout on South First and South Second streets.
Plus, Urban Catalyst, headed up by real estate executives Erik Hayden and Joshua Burroughs, hopes to create a “restaurant row” in Paseo de San Antonio, where the real estate firm is completing a redevelopment of the old Camera 12 movie house on South Second Street.

Some of the most dramatic changes might occur with the conversion to apartments of the Bank of Italy tower, crowned by its distinctive spire and cupola.

“Nothing would help more in the historic district of downtown San Jose than getting the lights back on in the Bank of Italy building,” Knies said. “And that includes the light in the beautiful spire of that building.”

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/06/...l-estate-tech/

[homebucket]

The specs:
- 11 floors, ? ft
- 80 studio units
- 16 of the units will be affordable
- 1,300 sq ft for retail

The site:
https://goo.gl/maps/xtf9CbL38zH5Sf2D9

Updated 11-Story Plans For 101 Delmas Avenue, San Jose



BY: ANDREW NELSON 5:30 AM ON JUNE 29, 2023

Updated plans have been filed for an 11-story residential infill at 101 Delmas Avenue in San Jose, Santa Clara County. The project will replace a single-story structure at the corner of Delmas Avenue and West San Fernando Street with 80 homes. Christopher Hall of MANU Studios is responsible for the application.

The preliminary application plans to use Senate Bill 330 to expedite ministerial approval and increase residential capacity. Of the 80 studios, 16 will be designated as affordable to low-income households. The ground level will include a 1,300-square-foot retail space. San Jose-based Manu Studios is the project architect. Renderings shared by the Bay Area News Group show the 11-story tower with a different design for each corner. The busy facade will be articulated with setbacks, balconies, and various facade materials.

Residents will be across from the San Fernando light rail station, just one stop from Diridon Station. Downtown San Jose is just one block away under a Highway 87 overpass, near to the now-open Adobe North tower designed by Gensler. The tower may eventually be surrounded by development as part of Google’s Downtown West master plan. The 80-acre plan developed by Lendlease is expected to create around 7.3 million square feet of office space, around 4,000 homes, retail, an event space, a hotel, and 15 acres of parks. Construction was expected to have started already, but Google put the project on hold this Spring.

https://sfyimby.com/2023/06/updated-...-san-jose.html