Jade Leaf Filling Long Vacant Spot Downtown

Remember McWhorters in Downtown San Jose on Market and San Fernando? That retail space has been empty for what seems like an eternity. Finally a new tenant is taking its place, and it looks like a solid addition to Downtown's restaurant scene.

As you can see from the sign, Jade Leaf will have food, a bar, and a live jazz lounge. So we're getting both a restaurant and a new live music venue, double win!

Source: Nate Donato-Weinstein's Twitter

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Second Best City for Summer Jobs

Based on metrics such as job growth, availability of part-time employment, and summer activities, the San Jose metro was ranked as the second best city for summer jobs. There are nearly 400 service sector positions currently available in San Jose, and you can't beat the weather or the variety of festivals and activities we have throughout the summer.

Denver was at the top of the list, while my two favorite competitors (San Francisco and New York City) did not rank in the top 10.

Source: ZipRecruiter

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest - Aug 7-9th

The 26th annual Summer Fest this August features over 100 performers on 12 different stages. You have every incarnation of Jazz imaginable as well as R&D, Blues, and Salsa. It is one of the largest and most renowned Jazz festivals anywhere and is a must-attend event for Bay Area music lovers!

New this year is special programming for the South First Area (SoFA). On Friday night there will be new indoor and outdoor stages in the district, providing an extra-lively South First Friday. Speaking of lively, there will be all sorts of late night parties. They have done 24-hour Jazz marathons in previous years, and I'll look forward to seeing what they have planned this year.

For all of the details, head over to The San Jose Jazz Summer Fest website. Tickets are already available for purchase over here.

Time Map of San Jose Annexations (1900-2014)

It is fascinating to see how San Jose has grown via annexation over the years. The 45 second time lapse video below takes us from the 1900s all the way to last year. The expansion between the 50s and 70s is especially significant. Willow Glen, Berryessa, and Alviso were all independent cities at some point in the past. Even our job-center, North San Jose, was mostly independent until the 60s and 70s. Check it out below.

Source: Hillrise from the San Jose Development Forum

Veggielution: Bounty of Heart's Delight

Each year, Veggielution throws the premier gourmet dining event for vegetarians and veggie lovers--Bounty of Heart's Delight. This year, Matthias Froeschl from Nashmarkt is preparing a five course feast. If you haven't been to Nashmarkt before, it is easily the best restaurant in Campbell and I'm sure Matthias will do an amazing job.

This event includes a tour of the farm, appetizers, the feast (featuring San Jose grown veggies), local beers and wines, hay rides, a silent auction, and even a barn dance. Tickets are not cheap, but you will get what you pay for and the proceeds go towards supporting San Jose's urban farm and their numerous community programs.

Bounty of Heart's Delight takes place on Saturday, August 22nd at Emma Prusch Park. Click here to buy your tickets!

St. James Park - Pirates in the Park, Chaco's Taco Festival, KARTMA, and More

I just stumbled upon the St. James Park Website and found a lot of great information in there about upcoming events and initiatives. One such event is called "Pirates in the Park." This is a treasure hunt for kids 11 and under as well as pirate-themed activities. It is happening on Saturday, August 8th between 10:00am and 1:00pm. If you are interested in volunteering and helping make the park a better place for everyone, head over here.

Next up we have an event more catered towards adults on August 15th called the Chacho's Taco Festival. There will be taco stands, tecate beer, live music, lucha libre, food trucks, a car show, and a taco-eating contest (which San Jose should dominate given we now have two stars in the "sport"). The event will run from 11am to 8pm and you can get all of the details along with a map over here.

There is a social entrepreneurship venture called KARTMA street cafe which is partially funded by the Knight Foundation and Ebay Foundation. This concept brings an eco-friendly coffee shop to St. James Park with the goal of employing the homeless and teaching them skills that can be used to land jobs in other cafes. For more info or to help raise the last $6k needed to get the cafe off the ground, head over to their Indiegogo campaign (10 days left, nearly fully funded).

The St. James Park website also have some great historical resources, including the full audio from a speech that John F. Kennedy gave while on the campaign trail there and a great video detailing the full history of the (in)famous park. There is a page on development happening around the park, future projects in the park such as the Levitt Pavilion, and a full list of special events. I highly recommend checking it out over here and hopefully together we can restore this park to once again be an asset we can all be proud of.

Equinix Building Huge Data Center in South San Jose

Equinix is a publicly-traded real estate trust that operated 105 data centers around the world. They are planning to add up to 1 million SQFT of office space across five new buildings in South San Jose! This is one of their best performing markets and they want to make sure that they are preparing for the future.

If the project is approved, Equinix will build three, two-story data centers totaling 579,000 SQFT on former owned by Xilinx and another two, two-story data centers totaling 386,000 SQFT near its existing buildings on Great Oaks.

Many data center operators try to locate in Santa Clara which is serviced by the exceptional utility, Silicon Valley Power as opposed to PG&E. Silicon Valley Power not only sells their juice for far less than PG&E, but they are more reliable and provide better customer service. However, land has become so expensive in Santa Clara that the numbers are penning out better in San Jose despite PG&E. It also helps that Equinix has already laid out miles of fiber in South San Jose.

While data centers do not provide a ton of jobs, they do provide the city with significant tax revenue while requiring minimal city services. It is also tough to argue with more commercial development in residential-heavy South San Jose.

Source: SVBJ

Photo of Hart's Department Store

Below is a photo of Hart's Department Store from the 1950s. It was one of the last department stores to shut down, closing its doors for the last time in 1968 after a 102 year history in Downtown San Jose. You can also see the Basilica poking its head in the background of the photo.

Source: cardinal2007 from the San Jose Development Forum