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

Santana Row opens new public plaza and 1,300 space garage

The capstone project at the very end of Santana Row is nearing completion, and two very important components of that project have just opened. First, a new 21,000 SQFT signature plaza is now open to the public. It features fountains, benches, a re-planted oak tree, and the beautiful landscaping Santana Row is known for. When the building is complete, there will be new retail stores wrapping around the plaza as well.

The second component is a much-needed 1,300 space parking lot, just north of the plaza. This should make parking at the Row much easier during those busy summer months.

Another nice perk of the garage is 50 (!) new EV parking stations, bringing the grand total to 134 at Santana Row. San Jose has one of the highest concentration of electric car owners in the world, so this is greatly appreciated.

Santana Row was the site of the very first Tesla store and there is a new amenity that I didn't really see announced anywhere. Last year, there were 0 Tesla Superchargers in San Jose. These are highly coveted since they charge 3 to 10 times faster than normal chargers. Today, there is not one but two Supercharger stations at Santana Row with a total of 36 stalls, making it one of the largest Tesla stations anywhere. Based on the press release for the new garage, they may get 25 more stalls in the near future since 61 Tesla stalls are referenced.

Boston Properties proposing massive office high-rise

Last week we talked about Adobe's 4th tower, which at 700,000 SQFT is essentially three San Jose high-rises put together side-by-side. Apparently, that is only the beginning of the mega-projects proposed for Downtown. Boston Properties has a proposal that dwarfs Adobe's new building.

Many years ago Boston Properties proposed three office towers are the corner of South Almaden and Woz Way. It would have been one of the most significant projects Downtown, but the economy killed the project. Now they are resurrecting it at double the original size. Instead of three towers, they want to build one single 17-story tower with 1.8 million SQFT of office space!

To put that in perspective, in terms of square footage that would be like building five new "Knight Ridder" (now KQED) office towers or three new convention centers. This one building would have more office space than the entire Salesforce tower in San Francisco. To really put it in perspective, it would be the second largest office building on the West Coast (second to Apple Park) and the 27th largest in the world.

If this moves forward, it would turn a surface parking lot into an amazing piece of real estate that would bring something like 10,000 jobs to San Jose. Check out the photos below. All I've got left to say is, wow...

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

Airbnb coming to Downtown San Jose

Another popular Bay Area company is making San Jose their home away from home. Airbnb is opening their first Silicon Valley office at 333 W. San Carlos Street. In an appropriate move for a sharing economy company, they are taking up about 50 seats from the 1,344 desks WeWork offers in the building. However, Airbnb is looking for a more permanent South Bay location in 2020, which hopefully won't be far from this office.

For more info, click 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

Sobrato wows with proposal for "Bock 8" Downtown

The Sobrato Organization has been sitting on a prime 1.5 acre parking lot at the corner of Market and San Carlos for eight years. This was once earmarked for a three-tower condo project that failed to get off the ground. Sobrato's proposal is single 600,160 SQFT tower designed to look like four individual buildings.

The modern glass tower would be 17 stories high with most being dedicated to office space. Thankfully, there will be 19,600 SQFT of retail on the ground floor. Parking will be on floors two through six, which also adds more Downtown parking supply for evenings and weekends.

Floor plates will reach an impressive 50,000 SQFT, perfect for tech companies. Even more interesting are two rooftop gardens. One will be on the 14th floor and span 10,400 SQFT while the other will be on the 15th floor and clock in a 12,700 SQFT. Finally, San Jose is making better use of high-rise rooftops with proposals like this--two highrise hotels in the pipeline also feature penthouses with amenities like pools, restaurants, and green space.

Currently this will be a spec project without a specific tenant in mind. There is no specific timeline for construction--let's keep our fingers crossed that this will move forward soon.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose approves a 1 million SQFT office complex near Diridon

"Platform 16" is going to be one of the largest office developments in San Jose history. It will of course be dwarfed by Google's 8 million SQFT campus, but for now this is the largest project we have in queue.

The project will have three buildings: one would be 157,000 SQFT, another would be 367,000 SQFT, and the last one would clock in near 500,000 SQFT. Floor plates will be massive, ranging from 27,000 to 90,000 SQFT, and there is 15 feet between floors which should allow for very tall ceilings. Each floor also will have its own private terrace.

Parking would be a four-story underground structure with 2,264 parking spaces. This is a short walk or bike ride away from Diridon and the Downtown core, so hopefully a lot of people will choose alternative transit to work by the time this is complete in 2021.

Barring any major economic shift in the next few years, Downtown's future outlook is looking quite bright.

Source: SVBJ

Splunk signs lease for the entire flagship (and final) Santana Row building

Santana Row has come a long way in the past 15 years. It is now an internationally recognized destination that has become a model for mixed used projects everywhere. 700 Santana Row is the last major development project to complete the original vision for the street. Future building will likely go across Winchester, where Federal Realty is planning a near 1 million SQFT office project at the former site of the Century dome theaters.

Splunk, which already has a massive amount of space at Santana Row, has agreed to take on another 300,000 SQFT at the new building. This will bring their total presence to 535,000 SQFT and put the bulk of the company in San Jose as opposed to SF.

The capstone building at the end of Santana Row will be ready for full occupancy by 2019, but the first 3 floors will be in use this October while the rest of the building is still under construction. The project will also add 1,300 new parking spaces and 30,000 SQFT of retail.

Source: SVBJ

WeWork opens second Downtown San Jose location

The coworking industry is still picking up steam. One of the market leaders, WeWork, already has several spaces in Silicon Valley including a 75,000 SQFT Downtown San Jose location at 75 E. Santa Clara Street. That location already has 1,382 desks, but apparently that is not enough.

By the end of the year WeWork is opening a new 72,167 SQFT location at 333 W. San Carlos Street, also known as Riverpark Towers. The second location will have 1,344 desks across four floors of the building.

Coworking primarily (but not exclusively) benefits small business and entrepreneurs. As these companies grow there will be increased demand for more office space in San Jose, hopefully helping offset our jobs and housing imbalance. A second WeWork location is a very positive sign for our central business district.

Source: SVBJ

New two-story office and restaurant project Downtown

If you are an urbanist, you are probably already freaking out with the headline of a new two-story building in the most dense part of San Jose. However, it will make more sense when you look at the photo down below and see where it is being built.

Storm Land Company is planning to build a 34.5 foot-tall building at the corner of Santa Clara Street and North Almaden Avenue. You might remember this as the patio for the Mmoon or the exterior staircase for the SVG Innovation Center. It is a small sliver of land connected to a historic building, so there are severe limitation on what can be developed here.

The plan is to have a new full-service restaurant on the ground floor that would potentially sell alcohol and stay open until 2am. The second floor would be used for corporate offices. It could actually a pretty neat infill project that would better utilize the space. I love the outdoor seating, but perhaps they could use accordion or roll-up doors to open up the restaurant to the street (similar to Olla Cocina).

Source: SVBJ

Okta doubling San Jose workforce

As a sign that smaller tech companies can also thrive in San Jose, Okta is doubling their footprint and workforce Downtown. Last year SF-based Okta decided to build a second headquarters in Downtown San Jose at River Park Tower I. The original idea was to attract talent regardless of where they live in the Bay Area (Splunk had as similar approach when they opened a Santana Row office). The results have been strong enough that they are adding another 125 jobs across a whole second floor in River Park Tower I--and may expand more in the future.

With abundant housing and transit options, Downtown is quickly becoming the hottest market for tech companies wanting to get into the South Bay.

Source: SVBJ

New 20-story office tower proposed Downtown

Development proposals are continuing to roll in! The latest one comes from developer JP DiNapolis Cos. who spent $11.5 million for two vacant office buildings at 200 Park Avenue last week. Their plan is to build a 20-story office tower with a grand total of 740,000 SQFT of office space. The project would also include 1,200 parking spaces that would be shared with the Hyatt Place next door.

The general area could be completely transformed within a few years. This tower would rise on the same block where Insight Realty is planning Museum Place, an epic mixed-use development with residential, hotel, office space, retail, and an expansion of the Tech Museum. Across the street a 24-story residential tower is also proposed at City View Plaza and a block away Adobe is planning a fourth office tower that would double its employee count.

If everything goes according to plan, the new office tower will be under construction by the end of 2019.

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

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

Federal Realty moves forward on 1 million SQFT "Santana West" office project

Now that the legal battles between San Jose and Santa Clara around development are over, Federal Realty--the developer behind Santana Row--is resuming work on their next major project. The Silicon Valley Business Journal go their hands on some impressive renderings of the 13 acre project.

It looks like it will be one massive building covered entirely with outdoor green space. The Century 21 building would somehow be incorporated into the project, but how is not yet clear. "Santana West" is build-to-suit, meaning they are not planning to move forward without a committed tenant.

If all goes well, we will have another flagship office building in 2019 or 2020.

Source: SVBJ

1 million SQFT San Jose office project moves forward

The next San Jose office megaproject is gearing up at 440 West Julian St. and Automation Parkway. The city just approved a rezoning of the area from industrial to "Transit Employment Center," enabling the project to move forward. The three office buildings would sit between the San Jose Market Center and the Diridon/SAP area ("GoJo" -- where Google is looking for up to 8 million SQFT of space).

Each building would range from 157,000 SQFT to 500,000 SQFT and floorplates would be massive (27,000 to 90,000 SQFT). There would be four levels of underground parking with 2,264 parking spots. The buildings are clearly targeting large tech companies.

I hope this moves forward as it will put even more jobs in our urban core, which means more tax dollars and theoretically shorter commutes versus traditional campuses.

Source: SVBJ

ThinkBiggerSanJose: Downtown building sales

Our friends at ThinkBiggerSanJose.com have created a new map that shows recent office building and hotel transactions in Downtown San Jose. This data is relevant as it show interest and investment in San Jose's urban core. As the price per SQFT and the number of transactions increase, so will the likelihood of new projects being proposed, getting financed, or breaking ground.

To access the new map, click here.

Swenson reveals spectacular proposal for the Guadalupe River Area

Swenson Builders just blew my mind with their proposal to turn the Downtown stretch of the Guadalupe River into a 6.81 million SQFT mixed-use development. Apparently, Swensen has been contemplating this for decades.

The 30-acre project would incorporate and expand existing parks on both sides of the Guadalupe River and even create a second river (!)... more on that in just a moment. Perhaps take a quick break to scroll down and look at the photos and then head back up here.

The square footage breakdown would be 3.8 million SQFT for office space, 2 million SQFT of residential space (~2,400 units), 420,000 SQFT of retail in a 5-story terraced shopping center, and 590,000 SQFT of hotel space (~1,100 rooms). Bridges would zig-zag over the river(s) to easily get from one side to the other. If there was ever a proposal to rival the San Jose Google HQ, this would be it.

One of the most interesting aspects of the proposal is to create a man-made river parallel to the original Guadalupe River. The purpose of this would be to allow for recreational water activities in Downtown San Jose such as kayaking, surfing, and stand-up boarding. Above the river would also be zip-lines, allowing for a fun adventure combining both a natural and urban backdrop.

Right now this is more vision than a formal proposal, but can you imagine is this is what the Downtown Guadalupe River area looked like 20 years from now? This would be a tremendous amenity and entertainment draw while highlighting one of Downtown's best kept secrets--the river.

Source: SVBJ (Subscription Required)

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.