Former Senter Road DMV could be replaced with 372 new homes

Earlier this year the DMV at Senter Road across from Costco permanently closed its doors (it was always designed to be a temporary office). Now developer HC Investment Associates wants to construct three new buildings on that site with a total of 372 residences.

Details are scarce since this is early on in the process. It's not clear if these will be condos or apartments or if there will be an affordable housing component.

HC already has another San Jose property in development at 70-80 N. 27 St. in Little Portugal. They are replacing a two-story commercial building (Portuguese events hall) with a five-story residential building containing 198 homes.

Source: SVBJ

SJSU is officially taking over the Signia (former Fairmont) South Tower

San Jose State University and developer Throckmorton Partners have agreed to acquire Signia's South Tower. Throckmorton will purchase the building for $73 million and lease it to SJSU. Another $40 million will be spent on improvements and fees. 

This building was previously know as the Fairmont Annex and has Morton's and Bijan Bakery on the ground floor today. Going forward the building will be known as the Spartan Village on the Paseo.

SJSU will convert 264 hotel rooms that are occupied some of the time to housing for 700+ students that be there for most of the year. It should have a net positive effect on foot traffic and density around Plaza de Cesar Chavez. It will also force SJSU students to go through several blocks of Downtown San Jose as they travel to and from campus, giving them more exposure to the area around campus. It's a great location and any student would be lucky to have their dorm in this building.

Renovation of the lobby and second-floor mezzanine into a student-centric environment will begin almost immediately with amenities such as a large dining area, fitness center, a games room, and co-learning spaces. 

I have been wondering what will happen to the giant bridge that connects the Signia's main tower to the South Tower. Turns out that is part of the sale as well and it will become a study lounge, perhaps one of the coolest places to study in any SJSU dorm. There is also an underground tunnel between the buildings used by housekeeping. It's not clear if that will be incorporated in some way as well.

Unlike new construction, students will not have to wait years for the building to arrive. The dorms should be ready for the 2024-2025 academic year, which starts next Fall. 

Source: The Mercury News

Eight-story apartment building proposed near future San Jose Google campus

A restaurant called Con Sabor a Mexico on 500 West San Carlos Street might become the site of an eight-story apartment building. The address is significant since it's in the "Downtown West" neighborhood that Google eventually wants to turn into an urban campus in the Downtown San Jose.

The proposed building would have 90 apartments across eight floors, and 2,670 SQFT of ground-floor retail. Based on the initial render it looks like it will include some amount of parking. I don't quite understand the grid on one side of the building. Those could be some form of child-safe balconies or interior hallways that allow airflow to pass through.

Even without factoring for the Google campus, the location is a few blocks away from Diridon station and a few blocks away from Discovery Meadow and the Guadalupe River trail. The site would be extremely convenient for Adobe employees as well.

So far the development plans are preliminary and there is no formal ETA.

Source: The Mercury News

Urban Catalyst moving forward with two high-rise residential towers near San Jose City Hall, updates plans and renders

One of Downtown San Jose's most ambitious developers and proponents has acquired the final puzzle piece needed to built its two towers named Echo and Icon. They purchased a parking lot on North Fourth Street across from Miro that completes the space necessary for their project. 

Echo is a 27-story residential tower with 415 homes. Icon was supposed to be a 22-story office building, but given the state of the market they are planning to convert it to a 26-story residential tower with 650 units instead.

Below are the updated renders envisioning Icon as a residential tower as opposed to office. Icon is the tower on the left bordering Santa Clara Street. It would replace a space previously used as a gas station along Downtown San Jose's main street.

There is no estimated timeline, but I hope Echo and Icon come sooner rather than later. Injecting over 1,000 homes into the central part of Downtown San Jose with easy access to transit (including a future BART station) would help accelerate its transition to a thriving 24x7 urban center. 

Source: SVBJ, SF YIMBY

Previous Renders:

Project for 900 homes moves forward near Little Portugal and San Jose's next BART station

The city of San Jose just completed the environmental review for a mixed-use project close to Little Portugal at 1325 East Julian St. The project would have four 10-story buildings with 633 apartments, 127 reserved for affordable housing, an 11,500 SQFT of ground-floor retail. There would be a six-story building with 49 affordable homes and 2,500 SQFT of ground-floor retail. Lastly there is a six-story apartment building with 235 homes, all affordable housing plus 820 SQFT of ground-floor commercial space.

This is certainly a huge improvement over what is in the area now (see 2nd image below). However...

...this is a huge lost opportunity to build interesting buildings that tie into the Little Portugal neighborhood and BART station. This does not have to be expensive. Simple changing the color scheme and adding a little mosaic tile will add character and give San Jose a much needed dose of vibrancy.

You can find Portugese-influenced architecture interviewed all around the world. This is Senado Square in Macao (China):

Again, something is better than nothing but there are not many empty parcels left in San Jose. We'll be looking at these buildings for the next 50+ years, so we should make sure the design reflects the direction San Jose is headed as opposed to being another beige box.

Source: SVBJ

Affordable housing coming to Buena Vista neighborhood in Midtown San Jose

259 Meridian Avenue is the current site of a few 1-story commercial buildings built in 1958 that are tucked away behind W. San Carlos. This is the Buena Vista neighborhood or Midtown between Downtown San Jose, and Santana Row/Valley Fair (Uptown).

Developer Milestone Housing Group is proposing to build a 154-unit six-story project on this site. This developer specializes in affordable homes and teams with nonprofit organizations. The housing they build is typical for individuals and families that have a wide variety of specific needs, including veterans with disabilities, senior housing, and permanent housing for the unhoused.

This was just filed with the San Jose Planning Department, and there is no official ETA.

Source: The Merc

Downtown San Jose office tower converting to housing

Urban Catalyst is building two high rises near city hall, one is a 26-story high-rise with 389 residences and the other was supposed to be a 20-story office building called Icon with 525,000 SQFT of office space. Now given market conditions, it looks like the office building is going to pivot into more housing.

The converted project would have 650 multifamily units after getting city approval. There is a significant need for housing and a lot of vacant office space right now in Downtown San Jose, so this sounds like a wise shift.

Source: The Merc

Reimagining of Oakridge Mall in South San Jose as suburban village with two high-rises

There has been a lot of discussion around Santana Row on X recently, but other concepts similar to it have been in the works for a long time in the San Jose metro.

The architect behind a new apartment project (380 N. 1st Street, more on that tomorrow) also created an interesting concept for Westfield. Imagine what Oakridge mall's gigantic parking lot could be turned into. The renders below look very similar to a slightly small Santana Row that is directly attached to the mall.

The concept has two high-rises and several mid-rise buildings with 1,500 apartments, a hotel, 250,000 SQFT of office space, 25,000 SQFT of new retail space. Macy's would be turned into an industrial innovation center with maker spaces for artists.

It would be interesting to see Oakridge as a mixed-use destination. This would certainly give South San Jose a stronger sense of place as no high-rise projects exist there today. There are a few mixed-use proposals such as this one, but nothing of this scale.

Right now it is just a concept, but given Valley Fair's immense success in their last expansion, perhaps this is something that could see the light of day.

Source: Silicon Valley Joe from Skyscraper City

San Jose housing project upsized in "Uptown"

The site of the former Century 24 domed movie theater at 741 South Winchester Blvd. is destined to become an affordable housing project. The developers SyRes Properties LLC is increasing the number of units to 264 in a seven-story residential building.

The project would have 35 studios, 113 one-bedroom apartments, and 116 two-bedroom apartments. 20% of the units units would be considered affordable, which allow the complex to qualify as a housing development for very low, low, or moderate-income households. This designation allows the developer to apply for a "builder's remedy" which not only accelerates the project through city planning but enables to builder to add more units to the project.

The project would also include a community room, a 3rd floor outdoor space, a gym, and co-working spaces for residents. However, the biggest draw might be that is is just blocks away from Santana Row and other development projects around the Winchester Mystery House.

Source: The Merc

San Jose office building may be converted to residential or hotel

A 10-story, 113-year-old office building at 2 West Santa Clara St. might be converted to become either a residential building or a hotel.

Like many urban areas today, Downtown San Jose has a very high office vacancy rate. In Q2 it was 26.6%, partially because the massive 200 Park office tower was completed, adding greatly to the amount of available office space in the area. Santa Clara is also at 26.1% and San Francisco has a whopping 31.6% office vacancy.

So it makes quite a bit of sense to take some of the older office buildings and convert them to other uses that have more demand. Some of the plans up for consideration for 2 West Santa Clara are 65 residences, a hotel with 147 rooms, or a 73-unit co-living space (e.g. The Grad). 

The building has a great location in central Downtown San Jose but is only 100,000 SQFT and has small floor plates that are not popular with tech companies these days. Since every office has windows already, it should a pretty easy conversion to residential or a hotel.

Source: SFGATE

New housing proposed for East Capitol Expressway

Yet another housing project is being proposed near a San Jose train stop. 203 residential units and a cafe are being planned for the intersection of East Capital Expressway and Highway 87. The multi-phase project would also have an open plaza, paseo, a library, public art, and community spaces.

It's an interesting transit-oriented location across from an existing Light Rail Station and the onramp for Highway 87. Based on the renders it looks like they are planning to incorporate a bus hub into the project as well and there seems to be a plenty of room for future expansion. 

I imagine much of the Capital Expressway Auto Mall across from the freeway will be redeveloped long term, so it will be interesting to see what this neighborhood will become.

Source: SVBJ

1,027 apartments coming to old Harry's Hofbrau and Garden City Casino site

It's been over a decade since Garden City Casino relocated (and rebranded to Casino M8trix) and over four years since local favorite, and craft beer hotspot Harry's Hofbrau closed down. Now there is finally a solid proposal by Trammell Crow to develop the 10.3-acre site.

The plan involves three buildings with a whopping total of 1,027 apartments, 154 of which would be "affordable." While it won't replace Harry's, there will be 13,500 SQFT of ground-floor retail. The project borders Saratoga Avenue and Kiely Boulevard.

The ETA is unclear, but this is now the third proposal for this area. Hopefully this comes to fruition as we do need more housing in the area.

Source: SVBJ

List of major Downtown San Jose projects under development

After many years of relatively generic proposals for Downtown San Jose throughout the early 2000s and 2010s, we are starting to see some bolder proposals that better reflect the diversity and uniqueness of Silicon Valley. 

I especially love projects that combine historic buildings with newer elements above or beside the original building, like what Bayview Development is doing at 150 E. Santa Clara.

For more details on each of these projects, hit the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

33 S. Montgomery St. (1.2 million SQF office, retail, and restaurants)

150 E. Santa Clara (75,285 SQFT Office + Retail)

The Terraine (319-unit residential, 12,263 SQFT of retail)

The Mark (Housing for 1,000 students)

Woz Way (1 million SQFT office, 10,100 SQFT retail)

New housing tower to replace local San Jose market and taqueria

A new housing tower is proposed on the periphery of Downtown San Jose at 101 Delmas Avenue. At 11-stories it just barely qualifies as a high-rise, but given the narrow size of the building it will likely look taller than it actually is.

The ground floor will primarily be retail, which is great considering it will replace the Delmas Market and Imperio Tacqueria. At 1,300 SQFT, the new retail space it should be able to accommodate a small restaurant.

Above the retail will be 80 units, 16 of which will be affordable housing. All of the units will be studios, which is an interesting choice. Likely this will appeal to younger people without kids that want easy access to urban amenities and public transit. If the Google project ever gets built, it will also be right next door.

Source: The Merc

SoFA will never be the same if these 6 towers get built

Feast your eyes on two projects consisting of three towers each in Downtown San Jose's artsy SoFA district. I love how these proposals continue to get more and more impressive with natural elements and rooftop amenities.

The first five renders below are a joint residential venture between Urban Community and Terrascape Ventures with 386 units. Two towers would be around 420 S. 2nd Street and clock in at 12 and 22 stories plus 8,000 SQFT of retail in a public plaza between the buildings. This is where the Dai-Thanh Supermarket and Dakao Sandwich shop currently stand. A third 20-story would rise on 420 S. 3rd St. and replace an old apartment complex. At least two towers would have an outdoor rooftop deck and lounge with trees and plants. The entire project would be built using mass timber and cross-laminated timber and operate with net-zero carbon emissions.

The next five renders are Westbank's "The Orchard" mixed-use project at the very entrance of SoFA from San Salvador Street. The towers looks great, but the ground-floor retail looks phenomenal! Currently, most of this proposal covers what today is a giant outdoor parking lot.

If just one of these projects moves forward, it will transform the area. If both make it, it'll be a revelation. It would triple the amount of foot traffic on most days and likely turn SoFA into an even more thriving area than San Pedro Square or the Historic District.

Sources: SVBJ, Aphelion2100 from the SJ Development Forum