Another Costco Coming to South San Jose

An empty 76-acre Edenvale site near Highway 85 and Great Oaks could become the site of another Costco. This is land that used to be part of the IBM/Hitachi campus. In addition to the massive wholesaler, there would be 260,000 SQFT of new office space, ~50,000 additional SQFT of retail, and 720 housing units. The city of San Jose plans for this to eventually become and urban village connected with mass transit.

One surprising side benefit of this development project is that $10 million would go towards the new San Jose Earthquakes Stadium. The money would be used for upgrading the stadium, including an upgraded seating system and riser, and a terra-cotta finish.

Source: SVBJ

More San Jose Luxury Apartments Break Ground

Below is a rendering of "Ascent," Shea Properties' latest apartment project. We are talking 650 units in South San Jose (former Hitachi campus) with an estimated completion of Spring 2015. The total project cost is going to be $200 million, making it quite an expensive development when looking at the unit count ($307k per unit). There will be one, two, and three-bedroom units and luxurious amenities such as saltwater pools, a yoga courtyard, and a community pizza oven.

Looks like nice project, I just wish there was an office component to it as well. We really need more jobs in South San Jose and more housing in North San Jose.

Source: SVBJ

Edgewater Networks Moves to South San Jose

Edgewater is an internet communications company with various solutions and services. They have been leasing 24,000 SQFT of space at 2895 Northwestern Parkway in Santa Clara for the last five years. The company has decided to upgrade their headquarters to 38,000 SQFT in South San Jose at Hellyer Oaks Technology Park. Low rents and a reverse commute seem to be attracting a little bit more attention to the area (Barracuda Networks made a big move here as well), but office vacancy in South San Jose is still hovering around 20%.

Source: SVBJ

City Ventures Building 550 Homes at Former IBM Site

Quite a few developments are in the queue for the area where 101 and 85 meet in South San Jose (where there was once an IBM Disk Drive facility). City Ventures will be one of the first to break ground and will turn 14 acres near Cottle and Monterey roads in 550 homes, 400 of which will be rentals (4-story building wrapped around a parking garage). The 150 for-sale units will all feature solar panels and will be prewired for electric cars in the garages. The project is also near the Blossom Hill Caltrain station, giving residents easy access to anything on the Caltrain corridor.

Lennar is also planning to build 840 units on 40 acres. St. Anton Partners is building a 275-unit apartment complex, and Hunter Properties is already under construction with a large retail project in the area. When all is said and done, the area will have almost 3,000 housing units and 320,000 SQFT of retail space.

Source: SVBJ

City Ventures Homes in Morgan Hill

Communication Hill Renders!

KB Homes owns 300 acres of Communication Hill and is planning to build up to 2,200 homes on 75 of those acres. The rest will be used for retail/commercial, an industrial park, open space, trails, and public parks.

We finally have some renders on what the new homes will look like, and I have to say they look pretty damn good. This is much nicer than what I was expecting. The design is very modern with sharp edges, a diverse color palette, and unique architectural features. I'm also happy to see that some of the buildings utilize seven stories, which would make them the most dense residential buildings in South San Jose.

You can click the images below to enlarge. What do you guys think?

Source: Anonymous Poster

Barracuda Networks Expands to South San Jose

One area of San Jose that has been very slow to benefit from the economic recovery is Edenvale. This South San Jose tech cluster was booming in the .COM days, but has been plagued with high vacancy rates for years now. However, it looks like things are starting to turn around.

Campbell-based Barracuda Networks has decided to move their manufacturing, customer support, hardware, and design teams to a 50,000 SQFT building in Edenvale (5710 Fontanso Way). A total of 100 jobs will be moving to San Jose. All it takes is a few high-profile deals like this to spark interest from other companies.

Edenvale is not close to mass transit, but does have a lot going for it. For starters it is close to the bulk of San Jose's current residential neighborhoods. Second, for those that don't live in the immediate area, it is a super-convenient reverse commute. Lastly, companies get a ton of bang for their buck. The price per square foot for the large amounts of space available is among the lowest in Silicon Valley. Hopefully more companies will follow in Barracuda Networks' footsteps.

Source: SVBJ

Bass Pro Shops is Building a GARGANTUAN Store in South San Jose

Bass Pro Shops is an outdoor retailer known for building huge destination stores. How huge? The San Jose store will be 145,000 SQFT, which is larger than your typical Costco. This store has an incredibly loyal and devoted following that drive an average of more than 50 miles to get to their closest store and stay an average of 2.5 hours per visit. Each store gets about 2 million visitors per year. This will be the first Bass Pro Shops in the Bay Area, and there are only two other stores in all of California.

The San Jose store will carry all sorts of camping, hunting, fishing, boating, and general outdoor gear. If none of that sounds appealing to you, I'm sure just walking around will be entertaining in and of itself. In fact, this store will come complete with a 12-lane "underwater" bowling alley and a seafood restaurant.

Bass Pro Shops will be located in Almaden Ranch at the corner of Almaden Expressway and Highway 85 and construction should be complete in 2015. Over 250-300 permanent jobs will be created when the store opens, not including seasonal employees.

Source: The Merc, SVBJ

Communications Hill Project is Moving Forward

If you live in South San Jose, you may want to attend a June 10th community meeting for a huge Communications Hill project. The plan involves 4,000 densely-packed homes, 60,000 SQFT of retail, a 50-acre industrial zone, and open space/trails (more steps perhaps). The meeting is taking place at 2933 St. Florian Way (Fire Station 33) at 6:30pm.

Thanks to Rob Sidhu for the tip!

TO: Residents of Chianti at Tuscany Hills Homeowners Associations.

We were just made aware of a meeting to provide an overview of the development project planned on Communications Hill will be held on:

Monday,

June 10, 2013

at 6:30pm

at 2933 St. Florian Way

San Jose (Fire Station 33)

Officials from the City of San Jose and KB Homes will be at the meeting to present the plan and answer questions. The complete plan for Communications Hill includes 4,000 residential units, 60,000 sq ft of retail, a 50 acres industrial park and areas of open space and trails. The overall vision is a dense neighborhood that is very walk able.

We do not have any further details about the development or meeting, but we wanted to make you aware of this upcoming meeting.

Oakridge is Going Country!

Well, it looks like a huge, HUGE, country-themed restaurant will be coming to Oakridge Mall. "Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill" is going to take up a massive 17,594 SQFT, and I would be surprised if there wasn't a commensurate amount of outdoor seating to go along with it. This is a venue known for hosting country music events (hope our events are like the photo below), large guitar-shaped bars, and of course Southern food.

The new restaurant replaces at least five stores: Mainland Skate, Radio Shack, Merkerro Fashions, PacSun, and Cutegirl.com. I wonder if they are planning to go the Santana Row route and increase the ratio of restaurants to retail.

There also appears to be a rumor that the Apple Store will be moving to a newer larger space soon. This would be great news since the only Apple Store in San Jose-proper is also the smallest one I have ever seen (the Valley Fair store is technically in Santa Clara).

Source(s): Hat tip to Sergio Oliveri (shout out to Little Italy San Jose), JAB88, Kennethh

START Program in Evergreen

A native San Josean and current teacher in Evergreen has kicked off the START Program at Silver Creek Academic Academy. If you have middle school or high school kids in South San Jose, this will be worth a look!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The START Jr. and START Program

High school and junior high can be a difficult sea to navigate. Now that the college admissions process is as competitive as ever, students must take advantage of every opportunity presented to them. To better serve all of our middle school and high school students at SCAA, we are offering a program that is designed to help guide and advise them through junior high school, high school and into college. This exciting program will provide your child with the tools and resources needed to help maximize their potential for admittance to their selected college choices. If you are interested in receiving more information about this addition to SCAA, please email us today at Info@TheSTARTProgram.com. 

www.TheSTARTProgram.com

More South San Jose Apartments

I wonder how long it will be before we run out of open land for these massive projects. Ivanhoe Cambridge and Shea Homes are building 648 luxury apartments at 1500 Cottle Road in South San Jose, where Hitachi Global Storage Technologies used to be. This is a $171 million project with ground breaking expected in 2013 and sales starting in 2015.

Ivanhoe Cambridge is a Canadian pension fund, and they must really like us because they purchased four South Bay apartment communities last year and Kimberly Woods in San Jose this year. Their total investment in Silicon Valley is now $600 million.

Source: SJBJ

2,000 New Homes Coming to Communication Hill

KB Homes is in the process of purchasing 300 acres in one of the largest undeveloped areas in San Jose, Communication Hill. 75 of those acres are going to be used for a whopping 2,000 homes. I know this location is not ideal for many of the people that read this blog, but the development will be close to Lightrail, Highay 87, and has easy access to Downtown. The density should be on par with or greater than KB Homes' other project on Communication Hill, Tuscany Hills (760 units).

The complete plan for Communication Hill includes 4,000 residential units, 60,000sqft of retail, a 50 acre industrial park, and huge chunks of open space and trails. The overall vision is a dense neighborhood that is very walk-able, similar to Telegraph Hill in SF. This leaves about 1,200 homes to be developed after this project is complete, so it will be interesting to see the end result.

Source: SJBJ

Lennar is Building over 800 Homes in South San Jose

Lennar has purchased 40 acres or property east of Cottle Road and Highway 85 in South San Jose. The plan is to build a whopping 840 homes across six different communities, all to be completed by 2014. There will be a mix of detached homes, townhomes, and flats ranging from 800 sqft to 2,500 sqft.

In addition to this project, up to 2,000 other homes could be built in adjacent parcels. To service all of these new residents, a 320,000 sqft retail space anchored by Target and Safeway is set to break ground later this year.

Before you post in the comments: "Why are they building in South San Jose? This should be in a transit village!" ... let me say that this development will have access to both Lightrail and Caltrain. Also, any development news is good news at this point.

Source: SJBJ