Google's Downtown San Jose project still has signs of life

While it's not the promised mixed-use megacampus many were excited about, Google is still planning to be active in the Downtown San Jose area. They are hosting Creekside Socials at various locations within the footprint of their proposed project near the Shark Tank and Diridon Station. These events are designed to celebrate the local culinary and creative community. There will be live music, food trucks, interactive art, a bike valet, children's programming, and a small maker's faire. 

The first Creekside Social will be on September 9th from 11am-3pm at 20 Barack Obama Boulevard across from the SAP Center.

Google is also preserving the historic San Jose Water Company building and is working with local artist to enhance the "Downtown West" neighborhood they will hopefully be anchoring in the coming years and/or decades.

Source: The Merc

Google Mega Campus Updates

Google has received unanimous approval from the planning commission to build its massive campus around Diridon. The final step is City Council approval on May 25th, which is all but assured at this point. 

The overall scope of the is staggering--it's the largest proposal in history for Downtown and perhaps all of Silicon Valley. The first phase alone includes 4.17 million SQFT of office space, 3,130 homes, and several new community plazas. That phase is just HALF of the project. Even more impressive, developers will get the opportunity to build up to 6.4 million SQFT of office space, 7,000 housing units, and 536,000 SQFT of retail around Google's project. Collectively, the area will be called "Downtown West."

Building heights will range from 170 feet o 295 feet. Construction on city streets and infrastructure is slated for 2022 and will take until at least until 2031 to complete the entire project. When complete, this will be Google's largest campus in the world.

As a side note, Google has also promised $200M in community benefits if the Downtown West plan comes to fruition. This includes homeless services, job opportunities for local residents, five acres of new parks and trails available to all, and affordable housing.

Sources: SVBJ, SVBJ(2), Urban Catalyst

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

Google unveils more of its plans for Downtown San Jose

Last week, Google released additional renders and details about their plan for Downtown San Jose. The project is one of the largest and most ambitious in the Bay Area's history. It would involve 7.3 million SQFT of office space, 4,000 new homes, half a million SQFT of retail and art space, 15 acres of parks and open space, and zero net CO2 emissions.

One of the most exciting components is that 65% of the campus will be accessible to the public. Instead of being a fortress that only Googlers can access, many of the amenities will be open for everyone to enjoy, including those 15 acres of new parks and open space.

The scale is unlike anything we have ever seen. Google is planning to build 30 new buildings! Eventually it could support up to 25,000 employees. You can get an idea below of what this might look like below. If you have the time, it's worth watching the full 40 minute video that Google put together to showcase the latest version of the project (also below).

Source: Engadget

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

Bill.com is moving from Palo Alto to San Jose

Bill.com was the 2nd largest Bay Area tech IPO last year and they have decided to make San Jose their new home. They are moving from Palo Alto to 132,000 SQFT at 6220 America Center Drive. This is an office complex in Alviso that also features three Marriott Hotels (including an Aloft) and HP Enterprise's Headquarters.

They are nearly tripling their space from only 48,200 SQFT at 1810 Embarcadero. That means more jobs for San Jose at a fast-growing tech company whose shares are now public. Bill.com is currently worth just shy of $3 billion and employs over 500 people.

Source: SVBJ

Verizon bringing 3,400 employees to San Jose

San Jose's Coleman Highline looks like it will be fully leased before construction is over. Verizon Communications will join Roku in leasing generous amounts of space at the property. Verizon is grabbing 640,000 SQFT across multiple buildings, which is enough for 3,400 employees. 2,400 of those will be coming from an existing campus in Sunnyvale.

Coleman Highline will eventually have 1.75 million SQFT of space across eight office buildings, two hotels, and retail spaces. Project completion is scheduled for 2021.

Source: SVBJ

Roku snaps up another 162,557 SQFT of San Jose office space

Roku, the popular video streaming tech company, is moving their headquarters from Los Gatos to a much larger space in San Jose's Coleman Highline. Currently they sublease 160,000 SQFT from Netflix, one of their initial investors. The new campus in San Jose will clock in at 735,000 SQFT across five buildings.

Roku has brown from 400 people at the end of 2015 to 1,111 employees just three years later at the end of 2018. That will make the company one of the top employers in the Downtown or Airport areas. Getting the HQ for another fast growing tech company represents a big win for San Jose.

The Coleman Highline is also planning further expansion to a grand total of 1.5 million SQFT along with two new hotels.

Source: SVBJ

BlueJeans moves HQ to San Jose

The popular video conferencing company BlueJeans is moving from Mountain View to the posh Santana Row flagship building at the very end of the row. They are upgrading from a 24,000 SQFT space to 40,000 SQFT in the same area where Splunk is headquartered. In fact, BlueJeans may have to bump up their salaries to keep their neighbor from poaching talent--Splunk has the highest median salary of any large company in the US.

It is an interesting move considering that their key competitor, Zoom, is also located in San Jose (Downtown). A few weeks ago Zoom became the must successful IPO of 2019 and the company is now worth over $16 billion. BlueJeans is smaller player but was worth $728 million four years ago during their last funding round. Who knows, they could be the next epic San Jose IPO.

Source: SVBJ

Adobe is planning to break ground on Tower #4 this year

Adobe is prepping a 18-story office tower that would be the largest office high-rise in San Jose. At 700,000 SQFT, it is essentially three traditional towers merged into one. The massive building could house up to 4,000 Adobe employees.

One unique feature will be a giant pedestrian bridge over San Fernando Street that will connect it to the three existing Adobe towers.The shiny glass building will also have four levels of parking above ground as well as some underground parking.

The current Adobe campus is a bit of a walled garden. Location wise, this sits a little bit closer to central Downtown, so hopefully employees will make it out to Santa Clara Street and San Pedro Square to help bolster local restaurants and businesses.

Source: SVBJ

Electric Motorcycle Company moving to San Jose

San Jose is getting another cutting edge transportation company. Lightning is a manufacturer of high-end electric superbikes that can top 200 MPH and travel 100 miles per charge. They claim these are the fastest production motorcycles in the world.

Lightning has relocated from San Carlos to 6299 San Ignacio Way in South San Jose. The space is five times larger, which will allow them to expand their in-house design studio and R&D--likely bringing even more jobs to San Jose.

Thanks to Nio, Lightning, and several complimentary companies building EV components like Velodyne, San Jose is establishing itself as the Detroit of next generation vehicles. Even Tesla was originally planning to build their factory in North San Jose.

Source: SVBJ

Google's Diridon plan is starting to come together

If Google ends up building their 8 million SQFT campus in Downtown San Jose, it will be one of the most transformative events even in San Jose history. They have already spent over $250 million assembling various parcels of land in anticipation for the urban campus. Eventually 15,000-20,000 Google employees could be working in San Jose.

Google has started laying out a vision for the 240-acre land surrounding Diridon where they would local the majority of their offices. The improvements would be accessible to the public and benefit the whole community. Google wants to develop four corridors that each have their own theme: Los Gatos Linear Park, Paseo San Fernando, Cultural & Innovation Walk, and the Social & Commercial Loop.

The Los Gatos Linear Park would connect the Guadalupe River to the Los Gatos Creek via a green "eco-walk" and Santa Clara Steet outside SAP would be turned into a commercial district with retail and restaurants. Paseo San Fernando would feature retail, art, and event space.

This sounds very interesting and exciting. The more developed the plan becomes, the more likely this project will come to fruition.

Source: SVBJ

HP Enterprises is moving HQ to San Jose

Hewlett Packard Enterprises has long been an anchor tech tenant for Palo Alto. However, yesterday they announced that they are relocating their headquarters to San Jose by the end of the year.

The company will take 220,000 SQFT at 6280 America Center Drive near Alviso. That is large enough to relocate about 1,000 employees. Flextronics, Polycom, and Versa Networks also have a presence in that office park along with a brand new Aloft hotel. The location is minutes away from the @First shopping center and Levi's stadium. While there are few public transit options, BART will soon have a station in Milpitas about 12min away.

This is another big win for San Jose, both in terms of tax dollars and brand. Also, no financial incentives were required to make the deal happen.

Source: NBC Bay Area

8x8 is moving their HQ to Coleman Highline in San Jose

The Coleman Highline office project next to Avaya Stadium just scored an anchor tenant. 8x8 has reserved the entire first building, which is 162,000 SQFT. This is a 22,000 SQFT upgrade over their current headquarters (also in San Jose) with lots of room to grow in the future.

The entire Coleman Highline project will take up 1.5 million SQFT, all connected with aerial walkways. The first phase of the project should be ready by early 2019.

Source: SVBJ

Broadcom is moving its headquarters to San Jose

Broadcom is a Singapore-based semiconductor company that purchased Brocade for $5.9 billion late last year. The company had decided to take advantage of that acquisition and officially move its headquarters to the US, and even more specifically to San Jose. The announcement was actually made by Trump at a White House press conference. Why is this so significant? It means $20 billion (with a "b") in revenue will be pouring into the US. Only a fraction of that will impact the economy, but it is a significant announcement nonetheless. It also could mean more jobs in San Jose.

Broadcom has become one of the largest companies in the world with a total market cap of $110 billion.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose makes a bid for Amazon HQ2

Amazon is looking for a second home in the United States that would be similar in size to their Seattle Headquarters and result in a $5 billion investment. San Jose has officially put their hat in the ring with a compelling proposal which you can find here.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein also has a blog post that summarizes the proposal. We do have the best technical talent in the world and San Jose can not only accommodate the 8 million SQFT of office space they are looking for, but we nail all of their other requirements which include great educational solutions and access to international airports (we've got 3 of them within a 45min drive).

The only thing we don't have is the will to hand out huge subsidies like other cities are doing. We really can't afford it and it is not a sign of true partnership when the community has to suffer at the expense of a corporate deal. The jobs would be great for the economy, but without the tax dollars to provide supporting infrastructure around that much space, we would see our biggest issues like housing and traffic become even greater pain points. So, if Amazon wants the best location for HQ2 (San Jose of course)--they are going to have to open up the checkbook a little more.

To learn more about our proposal to Amazon, head over here.

Adobe is expanding their Downtown San Jose Headquarters!

This fantastic news has been around for a couple weeks, but I just got back from vacation and feel obligated to repeat it. Adobe has been on fire during the past couple years and is looking to dramatically grow their headcount. The company is planning to build a fourth office tower at 333 West San Fernando Street to compliment their current three-tower headquarters in Downtown San Jose.

The new tower must be massive as it will have capacity for 3,000 employees. That is more than Adobe's current three towers combined (2,500 employees). The 333 West San Fernando parcel is already entitled for up to 725,000 SQFT of space and there is even a render of what such a building might look like (although Adobe will likely go with something more creative).

Downtown is really having a banner year when it comes to attracting more tech jobs. First the Google announcement and now Adobe is more than doubling their Downtown office capacity!

Source: SJ Economy, SVBJ

Okta is creating a second headquarters in Downtown San Jose

Okta is a hot "unicorn" tech company that provides identity management and security services for other businesses. In an unconventional move, they have decided to create a dual headquarters in the Bay Area.

They currently have 850 employees and around 500 of them work in the San Francisco office. That location limits their potential reach for talent, especially as commutes continue to get longer and longer with no public transit or highway improvements in site that will make a significant dent arriving anytime soon. Okta estimates that adding a HQ in San Jose will open up a third more talent that they would not have access to otherwise.

Okta will start with leasing the 16th floor at 300 Park Avenue near Adobe and right under Xactly. The 19,735 SQFT will provide enough room for at least 100 employees, but they have the option to expand to other floors in the building as well. They have already started hiring people for the office and plan to move in February.

The San Jose location will truly be a second headquarter. Executives will have desks in both locations and split their time between the two offices.

Why San Jose? They evaluated a lot of potential locations, but San Jose had the right mix of pro-growth mentality, expansion opportunity, urban amenities, and transportation options.

Source: SVBJ (Subscription Required)

Vizio is now indirectly a San Jose company

America's largest TV company is now officially part of Silicon Valley. LeEco, which has their North America headquarters in San Jose, purchased Vizio for a cool $2 billion. It is unlikely that Vizio itself will move from Irvine to San Jose in the near term, but the purchase at least opens the door.

I have always had a lot of respect for Vizio. They started out as a budget brand focused solely on value and are now able to compete with the top manufacturers in the world. Vizio has always been among the first to drive cutting edge tech into products most people can afford (TV Apps, Ultra HD 4K, HDR, and now Smartcast). This is a company that belongs in San Jose, in North First, with all the other titans of the tech world.

Source: SVBJ

Samsung adding retail at San Jose HQ

Samsung opened their North American headquarters last year in North San Jose (at Tasman and First Street). One of the perks of the new campus is that is is publicly accessible unlike most tech offices in Silicon Valley (ex: Google, Facebook). However, while you can walk around the beautiful campus there really isn't much to do as a non-Samsung employee. That is about to change with two need retail options that will be a perk to employees and visitors alike. Samsung is adding a Honey Berry and Peet's on the ground floor.

As Nathan Donato-Weinstein alludes to in the source link, tech companies have become pretty notorious for discouraging outsiders to visit. Perhaps that is due to fears of intellectual property leaks or wanting to build camaraderie with internal employees. This mentality really does not feel like the right thing to do in an urban environment. It's great to see Samsung trying to do something different that will perhaps pay dividends by promoting their brand to the local community.

Honey Berry is a popular Asian ice cream/dessert shop that will be a welcome addition to the North San Jose community. They have a few other locations in Silicon Valley, but none in North San Jose. I highly recommend their ice cream sandwiches. Peet's I think requires no introduction.

Speaking of being open, Samsung's corporate cafeteria is also open to the public! I was not aware of that until reading Nathan's article.

Source: SVBJ