Loring Ward Moving HQ From Santana Row to Downtown San Jose

Loring Ward is a rapidly growing investment management firm with $11.2 billion under management. They currently have 100 employees that are split between two offices in Santana Row that total 25,000 SQFT. They needed a lot of room to grow and wanted an environment that provided easy access to amenities, so they choose Downtown San Jose. The company leased 43,000 SQFT at 10 Almaden, making it the largest new Downtown lease of the year.

As part of the eight-year contract, they will get their name on the building with great visibility from Santa Clara Street. Loring Ward is hoping to complete construction this fall, which will include a mix of private workspaces, open offices, and private interior offices.

As an added bonus in the Silicon Valley Business Journal article, it looks like brokers for the Boston Properties office project near the convention center have started marketing the space again. If they find a tenant, the project could reach 800,000 SQFT (I remember old renderings consisting of three high-rise buildings). It's nice to see that more than just residential and retail are picking up steam Downtown.

Side note: Did anyone know that 10 Almaden had a lap pool? I didn't until I saw the photo below.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose Mercury News May Return Downtown

Last October The Merc sold its 36-acre North San Jose HQ to Super Micro Computer, necessitating that it find a new home in 2014. Apparently there are two sites in contention. One would be close to its existing location and the other would be the Legacy Civic Towers at 75 E. Santa Clara. It seems that they are leaning towards leasing 40,000 SQFT at the Downtown location--marking a return home after a 50 year absence.

The location makes perfect sense. Not only is it close to City Hall and where a substantial amount of local news is happening, you have branding opportunities on the top of the building (remember Earthlink), easy access by multiple modes of public transit, all the amenities workers could ask for, and room to grow. They would even have an Ike's Sandwiches and ISO: Beers on the ground floor of the building! Let's hope the Merc makes the right decision.

Source: SVBJ

Hoopla Raises $8M, Plans to Expand Downtown San Jose Office!

Another hot startup is expanding in San Jose. Hoopla is a cloud-based gamification solution for motivating sales teams. Basically, they improve sales by throwing an element of fun and competition into the selling process. Gamification is a super hot space right now and Hoopla has grown by 250% last year alone, adding over 150 customers.

By raising $8M in a Series B round, they will be able to double their 25 person company by the end of the year. This also means quadrupling their space in Downtown San Jose. They are currently headquartered at 84 West Santa Clara, Suite 750--right across the street from the new One South tower.

For more information, have a look at the full release below or visit Hoopla's website.

Hoopla Raises $8 Million to Meet Demand for Sales Motivation Software

Series B Round Led by Trinity Ventures to Fund SaaS Company’s Rapid Growth

SAN JOSE, Calif., February 13, 2014—Hoopla, an award-winning provider of sales motivation software, today announced $8 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from previous investors Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE), Illuminate Ventures and additional private investors. Larry Orr, general partner at Trinity, will join Hoopla’s board of directors.

Founded in 2010, Hoopla’s cloud-based Sales Motivation Platform combines modern gamification techniques with powerful data insights designed to motivate and track   sales team performance. The product’s highly engaging, animated updates are broadcast live on big-screen TVs and web pages throughout the enterprise. A mobile version will be available later this spring.

“The world of sales is changing dramatically,” said Michael Smalls, founder and CEO of Hoopla. “New business models and technologies are changing how and where we sell, and a new generation of employees is bringing a different set of ideas and expectations to the workplace. Our customers recognize this shift, and are using Hoopla to build engaged, high-energy teams that are reporting gains of 50 percent or more in their key performance metrics.”

Hoopla’s software as a service (SaaS) solution targets the 15 million sales and other business professionals worldwide who use customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and want to improve the productivity and performance of their teams. The company grew over 250 percent in 2013, adding over 150 new customers, including well-known brands such as Act-On Software, Castlight Health, Forrester Research, GM Financial, and The Sacramento Kings.

“There is a select group of software technologies that are redefining how sales organizations connect, communicate and drive performance,” said Mr. Orr. “Hoopla is a leader in this market, and is rapidly establishing itself as the must-have motivation platform for world-class sales organizations.”

Hoopla will use its new funding to expand sales, marketing and product development efforts to meet the rapidly growing demand for its software. The company is hiring aggressively and expects to double its employee base by the end of 2014.

About Hoopla®

Hoopla provides cloud-based software that helps sales organizations inspire and motivate sales team performance. Using Hoopla’s award-winning Sales Motivation Platform, industry leaders like Angie’s List, Box, Experian, Glassdoor, Marketo, Trulia, Xactly and Zillow are building high-performance cultures that deliver dramatic gains in sales productivity and customer satisfaction. Learn more at hoopla.net, on Facebook at facebook.com/hoopla, and on Twitter at @hooplasoftware.

About Trinity Ventures

Trinity Ventures is a top-tier venture capital firm combining business insight, practical expertise and a personal touch to help start-ups win big. For over eleven funds, Trinity has helped passionate entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas transform markets and lives. Trinity's investment team takes a collaborative approach and believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment to deliver out-sized returns to entrepreneurs and investors. The firm invests in early stage technology companies with emphases on Cloud, Digital Media, Social Commerce and Entertainment, and Software as a Service.

Downtown San Jose Office Vacancy Falls Below 20%

After several years of 20%+ vacancy in the Downtown office submarket we have finally broken that barrier. In the 4th quarter of 2013, vacancy dropped from 20.9% to 19.5%. The total amount of office space Downtown is 8.4 million SQFT and the average rents are around $2.74, far below most parts of Silicon Valley.

The notable 2013 leases mentioned in the Silicon Valley Business Journal article are:

• Apigee (moved from Palo Alto) - 41,000 SQFT @ 10 Almaden
• Bridge Bank - 18,500 SQFT expansion @ 55 Almaden
• Miller Morton - 15,000 SQFT @ 50 West San Fernando
• CiperCloud - 20,000 SQFT @ 333 West San Carlos

While 19.5% is still quite high--especially compared to Palo Alto and Mountain View--the trend is very positive. The previous quarter also saw a 1% drop in vacancies. With more residential towers on the way and a booming restaurant scene, I fully expect vacancies to continue to decrease. Downtown San Jose is perhaps Silicon Valley's best kept secret regarding office space. Rates are low, the area is easily walkable with great access to mass transit, easy access to the airport, hundreds of restaurants and bars, a renovated convention center, tons of hotels, the SAP center, and now we even have a patent office.

Source: SVBJ

LastLightBender

Paul Mitchell Beaty School Opening Downtown

The California Academy has signed a lease for a 20,000 SQFT standalone building over at 130 Almaden Blvd. in Downtown San Jose's CityView Plaza.. The plan is to build a Paul Mitchell-branded cosmetology school with capacity for 200-250 students and 30 employees. The school is planning to serve around 500 clients and will offer discounted prices on a full line of services such as cuts, colorings, and stylings.

The school is hoping to move in by April 2014, filling yet another vacant Downtown space.

Source: SVBJ

Apigee is Moving to Downtown San Jose!

Apigee is technology start-up that has become a major player in enterprise API (Application Programming Interface) management. APIs let companies open up their software so that other applications can communicate with them. Whenever you see a function on a website that lets you post to Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, or Twitter... that is all done using APIs.

Now to cut to the chase, Apigee is a hot Palo Alto company with IPO potential and they have decided to move to Downtown San Jose. They are upgrading from 16,000 SQFT at 260 Sheridan to 41,000 SQFT of office space that could house over 250 employees at 10 Almaden. This is the largest office lease for Downtown so far in 2013.

What is surprising is that 20% of Apigee workers live in San Francisco and take Caltrain to work. They found that most San Franciscans actually preferred the Downtown San Jose location since they can take a baby bullet train which does not service the California Avenue Caltrain stop. Hopefully, if Downtown continues on the current trajectory, we might be able to convert some of these San Franciscans to San Joseans.

Some other perks of moving to Downtown San Jose from Palo Alto is that the cost of the office space is far less expensive and there is plenty of room to grow. You also have access easy access to the SAP Center, the remodeled Convention Center, an international airport, Lightrail, and BART in the future. If we can get two or three more of these hot companies Downtown, I think it would have a strong positive impact on the brand of Downtown and put the area on the radar for a lot more hot growing companies in Silicon Valley. Already, the restaurant and residential markets are exploding and retail is improving at a steady pace, so it is just a matter of time before the office market catches up.

Source: SVBJ

RetailNext Tripling Space Downtown

RetailNext is company that analyzes shopping habits and behaviors, even going so far as creating "heatmaps" showing where shoppers are spending most of their time in a store. They currently have a 50 people in their 6,800 SQFT Downtown San Jose headquarters at 99 Almaden. They have decided to nearly triple their space to a full floor at 60 South Market, which will bring them up to 17,108 SQFT.

They were quoted saying that staying Downtown was their #1 priority. They want access to amenities and the Caltrain stop but do not want to pay the high rents at Palo Alto and Mountain View. Hopefully we'll see a lot more companies make similar decisions!

Source: SVBJ

New Event Center Downtown Called "The Glasshouse"

The space formerly housing the Entrepreneur Center on the ground floor of 84 West Santa Clara has been vacant for quite some time. Now, the same owners of the Corinthian Event Center are planning to create a new 17,000 SQFT event space they are calling The Glasshouse where the Entrepreneur Center used to sit (it has since been moved to 100 East Santa Clara).

The plan is for a full-service venue that will cater to corporate events, weddings, conferences and parties. The aesthetic will be very modern and upscale featuring plenty of glass (you would expect this based on the name, right?). As an added bonus, they plan to eventually add a cafe with "substantial" outdoor patio seating on Market Street. Another option is a bar/lounge concept.

This will fill up yet another key corner on Santa Clara Street and bring new life and activity to the block. The Glasshouse is shooting for a December opening.

Source: SVBJ

Earthlink is Returning to San Jose!

Talk about a blast from the past. Earthlink was one of the key players in the early days of the internet, back when dial-up was the norm and anything above 56k was considered "high-speed." Back then they competed with companies like AOL and Compuserve. Earthlink used to have a presence in Downtown San Jose, and one of the high-rises even donned the company insignia for several years. After the bubble burst, they ended up consolidating offices.

Now Earthlink is coming back to San Jose, and they are doing so in style. The company is planning to open a huge new data center for its cloud-hosting platform along with a sales office. To top it off they are even acquiring a Sunnyvale-based company called CenterBeam. They are making a big investment in Silicon Valley, so it looks like they are planning to stick around for quite a while this time.

Source: SVBJ

Free WiFi for Downtown San Jose Small Businesses

As many of you know, Downtown San Jose was recently blanketed with the fastest outdoor public WiFi system in North America. The one problem is that it does not work very well indoors. Fortunately, there is a new program that will help Downtown businesses connect to this network.

The tagline for this program is "Create a Job, Get Free WiFi."  Any Downtown employer that hires just one new person in the next few months or opens shop Downtown will receive new indoor boosters to connect to the "Wickedly Fast" WiFi network.

Personally, I think this is a great direction and is the type of thinking needed to help Downtown small businesses succeed. Hopefully we will see more creative ideas like this in the future to promote job creation in San Jose's core.

Source: Sam Liccardo Newsletter

RetailNext is Expanding in Downtown San Jose

RetailNext is a "big data" startup that has just raised an extra $15M and is about to sign a lease for a new space Downtown. They will be doubling their footprint from around 8,000 SQFT to between 15,000 and 16,000 SQFT. Their CEO said they like it Downtown, and cited the improving restaurant scene, proximity to the airport and hotels, and how affordable it is compared to other business districts in the Valley.

With the larger office comes more jobs. They are expecting to add 15-20 more people to the current 50-person team over the next year or year-and-a-half.

A smart strategy for Downtown would be catering more towards startups like RetailNext that could grow in San Jose as opposed to trying to hook the largest fish in the ocean with whole-building leases. We already have tons of incubators and organizations like NextSpace Downtown, plenty of infrastructure, and some success stories like Pinger and Intacct. These companies are the future of Silicon Valley, so I hope to see many more of them making Downtown their home.

Source: SVBJ

Start Up San Jose Event Kicks off Tomorrow!

A slew of key Downtown establishments are getting together to push Start Up San Jose. The goal of this event is to fill up vacant retail space in Downtown San Jose, which will create a more vibrant and safe Downtown. The event is being championed by Councilmember Sam Liccardo, along with NextSpace and SJMADE. A vacant floor space at 75 E. Santa Clara Street is going to be brimming with San Jose entrepreneurs tomorrow and Friday. You will be able to swing by and check out some Moveable Feast food trucks, local products from SJMADE vendors, grab Barefoot coffee, or even work for a bit in a coworking space hosted by NextSpace. At night you will even have an assortment of beers to sample thanks to Beerwalk.

Next door is a really slick assortment of local vendors at Sperry Station, a new project that is well worth checking out. For more information click here.

Oracle Claiming More Space Downtown

Not long ago, Oracle announced that they would be utilizing 66,000 sqft of the building it inherited from the BEA acquisition--the Sobrato Tower. Now, they are laying claim to another 51,000 sqft (2 floors) of space just in case they need it. This is great news. The sooner we can fill up this building, the better for Downtown.

For more info, click here.

Oracle is Coming to Downtown San Jose

Oracle has decided to partially occupy the the 380,000sqft Sobrato Tower, which they own thanks to their BEA acquisition. They are currently building out 65,000sqft split between the 3rd, 8th, and 9th floors. This will help decrease Downtown's office vacancy rate and put more feet on the ground in front of San Jose businesses and restaurants.

As a side note, 488 Cafe is a new restaurant on the ground floor of the Sobrato Tower.

For more information on the Oracle move, click here.

Dishcrawlin' The Fairmont San Jose

First off, I have to say hello to the readers of The San Jose Blog! My name is Jennifer and I’m a blogger/photographer/San Jose resident. I’ll be blogging about random events, shindigs, places to be.. who knows -- but here I am! Hello to all!

SO....

Last Tuesday, I attended my third Dishcrawl, this time in downtown at the Fairmont San Jose. If you don’t know what Dishcrawl is then you are missing out. During a Dishcrawl, you get a chance to sample 4-5 different dishes of food; tasting food you may have never had before -- or perhaps going to venues you only thought you’d check out someday. Oh and a fun kicker - you won’t know what you get to try until a few days before the event. Mystery meals are fun!

Around 7pm I showed up at The Fairmont and the only area I was familiar with was the lobby. I looked around and saw a lot of hungry people, most with beverages from the lobby lounge in their hand.

I see buttons! Green, blue and red buttons. Everyone is ready to crawl, ready to EAT. I’m Team Green. Team Blue was the most rambunctious. Those crazies.

It’s time to start the eating. Green Team gets to eat Sushi from the Lobby first.

Now in no way am I a proper food critic - I just know when something tastes good to me or not so much. So these are my very-uneducated opinions in food cuisine.

My first dish: Fresh Tuna and Salmon Nigiri Sushi, Spider and Unagi-Hamachi Roll. The tuna and salmon literally melted in my mouth. I’ve had sushi that is a little chewy - THIS WAS NOT. I am not a big raw fish-sushi eater. However, I LOVED this sushi.



After some delightful conversation, our group moved on to Pagoda for some Wok Fried Mango and Mint Chicken and Dungeness Crag Egg Drop Soup, Honey Walnut Prawns (NOM!), and Steamed Jasmine Rice. My fiance and I have been to Pagoda before and have had the Honey Walnut Prawns but not the other stuff. Oh so delicious!



After Pagoda, it is time to hit up The Fountain. I honestly had no idea The Fountain was there. I only knew of Pagoda.

At the Fountain we were served House Hickory Smoked Salmon Blinis with Caviar and Creme fraiche, Heirloom Tomato Shooter, and Dungeness Crake Cake with Basil Aioli. I’m not a big fan of tomato soups or bloody marys, but with a quick taste of the shooter I noted it was pretty flavorful and had that zest kick to it. My favorite was the smoked salmon blinis with caviar and creme fraiche.



Tracy Lee, the creator of Dishcrawl sat down with us and chatted a bit. Did you know that there is essentially a Dishcrawl happening somewhere (within the 23 cities listed on the website) everyday? They’re becoming more and more popular too - I hear Portland sold out of their tickets for their first event in two days flat.

After some discussion about downtown San Jose and all the wonderful little spots to try out, someone with Tracy’s team came up to her and announced that IT WAS TIME.

Time for what?

The grand finale! On to the SWEETS!



The Fairmont opened three of its suites - The Presidential, The Fairmont, and The International and put out a spread of sweets: chocolate fountain with assorted fruits and nibbles, truffles, macaroons, mango-fennel panna cotta, assorted french pastries, and assorted fruit sorbet with super cute little cones. While there was no way I could try them all, I grabbed a plate of mixed goodies and sat down to nosh away.

I simply cannot pick a favorite as everything I tried was delicious, The Fairmont San Jose’s award-winning Pastry Chef Fernando Arreola is amazing.

Next upcoming San Jose Dishcrawl is “Taste San Jose’s Night Air” on Tuesday, September 20th at 7pm for $26. As of writing this blog post there were only 5 tickets left. Get yours before they run out!

New Business Incentives Downtown

In order to encourage more businesses to set up shop downtown, Chuck Reed and 3 council members are proposing several new incentives for business owners. Here are the benefits entrepreneurs would experience if the proposal succeeds:

• No license fees for new small businesses.
• No parking fees for two years for businesses that sign or renew a downtown lease.
• Potential tax reductions.
• Defer impact fees over an extended period of time (what developers pay for infrastructure improvements).

It's no secret that opening a business downtown can require dealing with plenty of red tape and inefficient city policies that slow down the process substantially. Hopefully if the proposal goes through it will also allow new businesses to open their doors much faster as there is some mention of committing additional resources to development. They mayor implies that the city's development office would operate "at the speed of business" to help move things along.