Monday, February 15, 2016

Huge development project proposed at former Garden City Casino site in West San Jose

When Garden City Casino moved their operations to M8trix, it left a huge land redevelopment opportunity behind. Now two developers are planning to build a mixed-use center on the 15-acre lot. The project would have around 300,000 SQFT of office, 870 apartment units, 15,000 SQFT of retail, and a 1.5-acre park. It would be the largest project built in West San Jose in a very long time.

Since San Jose has such a large imbalance of housing and jobs, I'm glad it sounds like a balanced proposal where the office side of the equation is not an afterthought. It would be nice to have a bit more retail included, especially since the project fronts Saratoga Avenue.

One unfortunate casualty would be Harry's Hofbrau, which has become a craft beer hotspot in recent years. The restaurant has been there for 36 years. At least they would look to either relocate in the neighborhood or use some of that new retail space after the project is complete.

It should take less than a year for project approvals to go through and construction is expected shortly thereafter.

Source: SVBJ


11 comments:

  1. I going to kinda miss that Garden Casino Mod 1970's Tahoe-like design. there are a lot of other Valley buildings I like ti see go fist.

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    1. Great point!!! This is a very special corner for me, when I moved to Cal from NY in the 80's - This is where I would eat with my parents and later would be a frequent patron at the Oasis- Lots of good memories

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  2. I can't believe the entire story doesn't even mention the fact that the current tenant on the old Garden City building is the first decent Rock and Roll venue to hit San Jose in 25 years!...and that is closing too! RockBar

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    1. Yet another bomb dropped in the war on fun and distinctive architecture.

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    3. You guys are overreacting. This isn't a building you go out of the way to show visitors or something. It's distinct by SJ standards, but that doesn't make it worth preserving.

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    5. LOL, to Anonymous- it aint Prague,..

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    6. There has been other mentions, John Lipka,about the ROck Bar, by other publications. I will find the link as it may be of interest to other folks.

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  3. Such b.s. Another rock club gone just for more housing and retail. The Rockbar theater that took over the garden city casino was an awesome local place to see live music. Now there's nothing once again. All the fun stuff has been taken from us. It'll be reno's gain and San Jose's loss. And losing Harry's hofbrau is also bad news.

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  4. I had not had the opportunity to see a show at the Rock Bar, My friends had gone, I missed Billy Idol- sold out in a minute..It was a much needed Venue. I feel sorry for the owners of the club, They had started to build a nice rep for themselves.

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