380 North 1st apartment project moves forward in North San Jose

A seven-story apartment project at 380 North 1st street is moving forward to environmental review. The proposal is an infill project that will replace a two-story commercial building at the edge of Downtown San Jose (5 minute walk to St. James Park).

The apartment building will have 118 homes, 18 of which will be designated as affordable units. There will be 74 parking spaces at the ground level using a car stacking system that will stack up to three cars on top of one another. There will also be parking for 30 bicycles and a bike cafe. An amenity deck is situated on the third floor and a clubroom with a balcony on the sixth floor.

Overall it's a significant upgrade from what was there before and is close to both Light Rail and transit lines (Buses 72 and 73 stop across the street).

Source: SF YIMBY

Alviso/North San Jose entertainment district is now a data center

Next to the Topgolf in Alviso was a grand plan for an entertainment district containing shops, restaurants, and two hotels. Five years later, the area around Topgolf is still barren (although Topgolf is doing very well on its own). 

Now, the owners of the land are coming back to the city with a very different proposal that is likely to be a lot less exciting for North San Jose residents... a giant data center. I'm digging the exterior design with a living wall for the 172,500 SQFT two-story building and it's neighboring 174,400 SQFT three-story power center--but it's still a server farm. 

There is still hope for a 15,000 SQFT retail space, which could house a few restaurants. However, that is nothing compared the the multi-million SQFT projects Santa Clara is planning down the street. In a few years there will be tons of new apartments, office buildings, restaurants, shopping, and at least one new hotel across from Levi's stadium. Not to mention all of Great America will likely be turned into some mixed used mega-property like Santana Row over the next 10-15 years. 

Something is better than nothing from a city tax dollar perspective, but we should question whether this is the best use for this land. Once it's a data center, I don't think it will be convertible to anything else.

Source: The Merc

Old Fry's HQ will become a giant office campus

The shuttered Mayan-themed Fry's store and previous Fry's HQ on Brokaw Road are destined to become a seven-building tech campus. Combined, they will add another 2 million SQFT of office space to North San Jose. 

However, don't expect to see this completed anytime soon. The developer is planning to build the project in four phases over a decade and won't even begin construction until 2024 at the soonest.

Source: SVBJ

Topgolf opens first Silicon Valley location in San Jose

North San Jose and Alviso are quiet parts of San Jose. There is honestly not much to do in terms of entertainment. Fortunately a new major amenity arrived a few months ago, Topgolf. It's part driving range, part Dave & Busters, and part gastropub.

The San Jose location is the first in the Bay Area as well as only the second location in all of Northern California. It is also one of only 4 flagship venues. To give you an idea of how popular these are, the Topgolf in Austin sells more alcohol than any other venue in Austin. The San Jose location is three stories with large bars and restaurants on each one.

The driving range aspect is more of a video game than anything else. Each golf ball has a microchip that lets it be tracked and the computer scores you based on your level of accuracy. There are also tons of games with different rules that you can play with your companions.

The food was surprisingly solid for a big chain. The burgers and fried mac & cheese were delicious. Service was a bit slow, but they were completely slammed when I went (on a Monday).

If you want to play, I would recommend getting a reservation since standby times can stretch to 4 hours or beyond. Parking is free, convenient, and they have a large number of free EV chargers as a bonus. It's also a great location for corporate events and parties. I experienced one firsthand and it was a blast.

For more info and to make reservations, head over here.

Market Park could bring thousands of homes and an office compound to North San Jose

A massive transit village has been proposed for the San Jose Flea Market right next to our new BART station. This is already the site of our largest project that is currently under construction. How massive you ask? The developers are looking to build 3,450 residential units and 3.4 MILLION square feet of commercial space. To put that in perspective that is roughly half of all the office space the exists in Downtown San Jose today.

The commercial component would be spread across seven buildings and three parking structures. The residential piece could utilize high-rises as tall as 200 feet, would would be very noticeable for the area. Other nearby amenities would include a plaza, pop-up retail space, an urban garden, a 1.4-acre rec area, tennis course, and a mini baseball field.

The bad news is that the Flea Market would be demolished to make way for the 61.5-acre project. There would be 150,000 SQFT of ground-floor retail and restaurants in the transit village, but it would not quite make up for losing a San Jose icon. However, given the vast increase in jobs, tax dollars, and density near transit--this project should be an easy approval by the city.

Source: SVBJ

New office building coming to North San Jose

LBA Realty has submitted plans for a new 125,000 SQFT four-story building near West Trimble Road in North San Jose. Amenities include two urban gardens, an amphitheater, a grove, and a greenroof terrace on the fourth floor.

This building is designed to compliment another approved 10-building project called NorthTown right next door which would span 1.28 million SQFT.

While the timing may seem off given the whole COVID situation, now is actually a great time to build preparing for a major rebound in 2021 or 2022. A lot of people (myself included) are missing going into the office and interacting with coworkers face-to-face.

Source: SVBJ

3.8 million SQFT office campus proposed in North San Jose

Bay West Development has proposed a 3.8 million SQFT office project at the former Fry's Electronics headquarters in San Jose (550 E. Brokaw Road). This would be one of the largest office projects of any kind in Silicon Valley, second only to what Google is proposing in Downtown San Jose.

The configuration would be seven large buildings and two parking structures, enough for 10,000 employees. The buildings would cap out at about eight stories or 120 feet. Unfortunately it does not appear like there is any attempt to make this a mixed use project combining residential and retail, but there is plenty of that in the area already.

Source: SVBJ

Inside Samsung's HQ in San Jose

The Wall Street Journal recorded a brief tour of one of San Jose's most unique buildings.The Samsung North American HQ is actually two towers connected by bridges, with tons of open spaces and hanging gardens. At any location in the HQ, you are never more than one floor away from outdoor spaces. The building may look nondescript on the outside, but the tour shows how interesting and well-designed the structure actually is.

As an added bonus, their cafeteria is open to the public so you can go check out the architecture for yourself. You can find the Wall Street Journal video tour.

Source: jawz from the San Jose Development Forum

Modular hotel coming soon to North San Jose

There hasn't been the same level of innovation in construction over the past several decades as other industries such as computers and health care. One of the major innovations that will greatly reduce construction timeliness and bring down costs is modular construction. Most of the project is built off-site in a factory and the pieces are then assembled like Legos on site.

A new Hilton Garden Inn in San Jose is being built in this fashion by stacking 88 modular units on top of a podium near the airport at 101 east Gish Road. The units even came fully furnished. When complete the five-story hotel will have 150 room spread across 95,000 SQFT. The grand opening is currently slated for Spring 2020.

Source: SVBJ

Google expanding in North San Jose

Google is looking into The Assembly campus in North San Jose for possible expansion. They could take somewhere between 800,000 and 900,000 SQFT according to the Business Journal. That should be enough for 4,000 employees or more.

In addition, they have already acquired eight buildings over the past couple years in North San Jose near Alviso. Those investments add up to over $400 million. If there was ever any question on whether Google was serious about investing in San Jose, I think these actions are pretty clear.

Source: SVBJ

Google expanding to North San Jose

Google has a long term vision of building an epic 8 million SQFT campus in Downtown San Jose near Diridon. That project that will probably take a decade to come to fruition. Fortunately, there is another Google project in North San Jose with a much shorter horizon.

Google has just secured leases on three buildings totaling 611,535 SQFT that have yet to be constructed at 60 North Brokaw (near Casino M8trix). Peery-Arrillaga, the developer, has already requested permits to start construction. Two of the buildings would be eight stories tall, while the third is four stories.

The buildings could accommodate up to 4,900 employees, and they could start moving in as early as 2021. That sounds like ages from now, but is less than two years away. Since Mountain View real estate is completely tapped out, this is the first step in a long journey for Google to move the majority of their Silicon Valley operations to San Jose. Without major changes in building policies up north, San Jose is without a doubt Google's future.

Sources: SVBJ, San Jose Inside

Future Motion opening 60,000 SQFT facility in San Jose

Future Motion makes a one-wheel electric skateboard that is becoming increasingly popular. The self-balancing skateboards retail from $950 to $1,800. I see a bunch of them every time I'm in Downtown San Jose.

While the company is currently headquartered in Santa Cruz, they are opening a new manufacturing outpost in North San Jose at 2250 Zanker Road. Future Motion expects to employ 150 people at the new facility.

For additional information on Future Motion and the industrial market in general, check out the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

Google buys a North San Jose office building for $155M

Google's first campus in San Jose may not be what you expect. Yes, they have been working for ages on a transit-oriented urban campus centered around Diridon Station in Downtown San Jose. That campus will eventually house tens of thousands of employees across a staggering 8 million SQFT of office space. However, one of their first forays into San Jose is going to be a bit more modest than that.

Google has just acquired two office buildings in North San Jose at 4300 and 4400 North First Street. The buildings are just north of Highway 237, which I would consider to be Alviso.

The buildings are partially occupied by Harmonic and Compstak and have recently been renovated. The leases expire in 2020, which is only a little over a year away. Their intentions for the buildings are not yet clear, but this seems like an obvious extension of their Mountain View campus, which is only 8 miles away by car or a 45 minute bike ride away.

Source: SVBJ

Self-driving grocery deliveries coming to San Jose courtesy of a San Jose startup company

The timeline for self-driving cars has been significantly underestimated. Waymo is already running a limited number of rides to beta customers in Arizona with no safety driver. Tesla is 6 months away from enabling basic self-driving features on over 200,000 consumer cars. And AutoX Inc. just started doing self-driving grocery deliveries late last month.

AutoX is headquartered in North San Jose (off of Trimble) and has two satellite offices in China. They raised $43 million in fundy last year from Danhua Capital, MediaTek Ventures, and SAIC Capital.

Several residents in a geo-fenced area near the headquarters are already eligible for service. Customers can either pick what they want to be delivered from the app or make last minute purchasing decisions when picking up the groceries from the car. You read that correctly... the car itself is a store.

They just have a handful of vehicles today, but are looking to grow to 20 cars very soon and expand the service to Mountain View and Palo Alto. For more info, head over to AutoX.ai or watch the video below.

It's great to see a San Jose company both pushing technological boundaries and providing new services to their immediate community!

Source: SVBJ

Electric car company grows in San Jose

NIO, a Chinese EV startup, is doubling down in North San Jose. They are moving into a 100,362 SQFT building at 3100 N. First Street, which was previously home to Broadcom and Hitachi. NIO already employs 520 people in San Jose, so this is a positive sign that more high-tech jobs will be opening up soon.

NIO currently only manufactures a single car, the EP9. It's a $1.2M supercar with 1,341 horsepower that currently holds the electric car record for the Nurburgring and for the fastest autonomous lap at the Circuit of the Americas. Like Tesla they decided to start with a halo car and work their way down to cars the masses can afford. Their next car will be a 7-seat SUV called the ES8 that will compete with Tesla's Model X.

NIO has already raised $1 billion and are rumored to be gearing up for a US IPO that could raise another $2 billion. It's clear that the auto industry is going to look a lot different in 5-10 years than it does today. If NIO turns out to be another disruptor like Tesla, then San Jose has a lot to gain as the brand grows.

Source: SVBJ

Local developer contemplating 1.5 million SQFT project in North San Jose

SiliconSage Builders submitted an enhanced preliminary review request for a 31 acre site in North San Jose near Cadence. The massive 1.5 million SQFT project would have 500,000 SQFT of retail, 700,000 SQFT of office, a 350 room hotel, 3,250 residential units, a 50,000 SQFT theater, a 30,000 SQFT amphitheater, and 4.5 acres of open space.

If that sounds ambitious, that's because it is. Those kinds of numbers are very similar to Santana Row. If you look at the massing below, the residential component would both be on top of the retail and in a high-rise cluster off of the side that could reach up to 20 stories.

The project could keep some tax dollars in San Jose after City Place is completed in Santa Clara next to Levi's Stadium. This North San Jose proposal is still very early on, but shows that developers are being more ambitious about future San Jose development.

Source: SVBJ

Spencer's Steak & Chops

I was lucky enough to get an invite to sample the Winter menu at Spencer's. I had been there a few years before when it was primarily a steakhouse, but it is obvious that the restaurant has dramatically changed since then. Chef William Hughins has transformed the menu to into something far more eclectic and contemporary. The steaks are still there (and they were delicious), but my favorite dishes were actually the courses that came before them. Below is a tour of my meal:

Freshly baked sourdough bread with black salt (not pepper). It was extremely difficult not to fill up on this before the meal started. 

Butternut squash soup with a roasted marshmallow, topped with chives. This one blew my mind. On the official menu the soup comes with creme fraiche instead of the marshmallow, which is too bad since this variant seems far more tasty and creative.

Braised bacon with local figs (middle part), and caramelized organic honey (top). I love bacon as well as combining savory and sweet flavors. The blend of the extremely thick cut bacon with the sweetness of the figs and honey made this my favorite dish. If you try this (and you should), slice from the very top to the bottom to make sure you get all three flavors in every bite.

Ahi poke. Sushi grade ahi, avocado, sesame, nori, and wonton. Here the secret is slightly burning the nori, which gives it a different flavor. This was very tasty and something I definitely was not expecting at a place known for their steaks.

Pan-seared Hokkaido sea scallops, filberts (no need to google that, they are hazelnuts), on top of orzo. The scallop was perfectly cooked and this would be a perfect light dinner for a pescatarian.

Kobe Ribeye, Spencer cut, and Tomahawk cut with potatoes and mushrooms. This was the most insane meat plate I have ever had. There was also a side of Ostrich steak (tastes like red meat but is very low in calories/fat). Even I couldn't finish the plate, but it made for a very luxurious lunch the next day.

Chocolate five different ways. If you haven't guessed it by now, Spencer's has gone a bit more upscale and they are raising the level of creativity in the menu. It really felt like dining at many of the Michelin star restaurants that I have been to. The dessert was a perfect cap to an outstanding meal.

I should also mention that they have a very nice setup for private events such as corporate parties and a cool bar area serving craft cocktails.

Spencer's is located at 2050 Gateway Pl, San Jose (inside of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel San Jose). For the full menu or reservations, visit the website over here.

New Homewood Suites by Hilton in North San Jose

Homewood Suites at 4315 N. First St. officially opened on October 13th. This is an extended-stay hotel ideal for business travelers and has 145 units that are more like mini-apartments. Every room has a full kitchen, separate living and sleeping spaces, and are at least 434 SQFT. They also have two-bedroom suites available. One of their unique features is a grocery shopping service that lets guests provide their shopping lists and employees will buy the groceries for them.

The new Hotel is located just north of Highway 237 and is just a few minutes away from Alviso, the @First shopping center anchored by Target, and Levi's Stadium.

Source: SVBJ (subscription required)

Microsoft looking to build a 1M SQFT campus in San Jose

The latest big tech company to take a serious look at San Jose is none other than the 800lb gorilla from Seattle. Microsoft has purchased close to 65 acres of "farmland" in North San Jose bound by 237, Zanker Road, and the Coyote Creek. They want to use the space to build either 1.2 million SQFT of light industrial space or a 436,880 SQFT data center and 728,000 SQFT of light industrial space.

Either of the options on the table would not bring as many jobs and tax dollars to the city as a traditional office complex, but it would be a great foot in the door as Microsoft currently has zero presence in San Jose proper. Microsoft has 1,600 employees in the area, but most are in Mountain View. With a grand total of 71,000 employees, San Jose could provide a viable opportunity to move more of their workforce into the tech capital of the world. They would be in good company as both Google and Apple and considering significant operations in San Jose.

Source: SVBJ (Subscription Required)

Brand new Bay 101 Casino is now open for business

M8trix finally has some decent competition with the first phase of Bay 101's complex officially open. Of course, the casinos really don't see one another as competition--but as a part of complementary offerings that draw gamblers and entertainment-seekers to the area. Bay 101 even strategically located themselves on North First Street just blocks away from M8trix.

The new Bay 101 looks really sleek and is filled with modern touches like dynamic lighting, open spaces, and abstract art. The building spans 68,000 SQFT and has 49 gaming tables. Bay 101 also features a flagship Asian fusion restaurant called The Province, which is owned by the same people as Sino, Straits, and Roots & Rye at Santana Row. The restaurant will be higher-end than anything at M8trix (or the immediate area for that matter) and bring with it some nightlife and one of the most impressive outdoor patios in San Jose.

Future phases of the Bay 101 project include two hotels and a 237,000 SQFT tech campus. The first hotel is an Embassy Suites with 174 rooms in a seven-story building. For the development enthusiasts out there, yes that is a huge missed opportunity for one of the few parcels in San Jose where a 35-story building is not only economically viable but allowed by airport regulations. Perhaps they will think bigger for the second hotel. One thing is for sure, Bay 101 is going to help make North San Jose a lot more interesting.

Source: The Merc, hat tip to Arnold Kwok for sending this in!