The South Bay is looking for more action from Super Bowl 60 than it received from 50

San Jose had a lot to gain from Super Bowl 50. There were major events throughout Downtown San Jose, including the SAP Center, San Pedro Square, and Plaza de Cesar Chavez. Hotels saw a huge boost. Plus most of the costs and risks were covered by Santa Clara.

Now for Super Bowl 60 in 2026, the South Bay is looking to better capitalize on the event. Of the $240 million of estimated economic impact to the Bay Area during the last Bay Area Super Bowl, San Francisco got a whopping 57% of that amount, San Jose scored 12%, and Santa Clara only got a sliver at 7%.

Fortunately, the numbers might swing more in the South Bay's favor the next time around. Several San Jose leaders are looking at way to attract more of the attention (and revenue) related to Super Bowl 60. Ideas include undercutting SF for major hotel events, host simultaneous music festivals, food festivals, tech showcases, charity events, and so on. 

It may also help that San Francisco's brand has been in decline with high levels of crime, homelessness, and squalor on city streets. However, it's never good to benefit from someone else's suffering. If your read the source article, the president of the Bay Area Host Committee believe by working together the pie will grow larger verses trying to compete with one another. That seems like the ideal perspective for maximum returns. We also have to do a much better job of marketing the assets we already have, and there are many.

It's a fascinating read. What do you think San Jose and Santa Clara should do to keep more Super Bowl dollars near the stadium where the game is actually held?

Source: San Jose Spotlight

Pianist Nicolas Namoradze performs for Steinway Society in San Jose

WHO: Steinway Society – The Bay Area presents

WHAT:  Nicolas Namoradze 

WHEN: Sunday, January 21, 2024 @ 2:30 pm

WHERE: Montgomery Theater, 271 S. Market St., San Jose.  Live and LIVE STREAMED

MORE INFO: https://steinwaysociety.com/

 

Pianist and composer Nicolas Namoradze came to international attention in 2018 upon winning the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, Canada—among the largest prizes in classical music. His recitals around the globe have been met with universal critical praise, and recent album releases have received extraordinary accolades, including the Choc de Classica, Record of the Month in Limelight, Instrumental Disc of the Month in BBC Music Magazine, Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, Editor’s Choice in Presto Classical and Critics’ Choice in International Piano.

 

Among the most critically acclaimed musicians of his generation, Namoradze was bestowed the 2020 & 2021 Young Pianist Award by the UK Critics’ Circle, which called him “very much more than a top-flight pianist.” Recent highlights include recitals at concert halls including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan; festival appearances at Tanglewood, Banff, Gstaad, Santa Fe and more; and performances with orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra and Sinfonieorchester Basel.

 

Namoradze earned his master’s at The Juilliard School and his doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center. He is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in neuropsychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College, London, where his research interests include the effects of mental practice and mindfulness on musical performance. Namoradze is the author of the book “Ligeti’s Macroharmonies,” published by Springer in the Computational Music Science series, and his compositions are published by Muse Press.

 

”Set to become one of the truly important artists of his generation.”

–American classical pianist Emanual Ax

THE PROGRAM:

Bach-Busoni, “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr” BWV 639

Bach, French Suite No. 1 in D minor BWV 812

1.    Allemande

2.    Courante

3.    Sarabande

4.    Minuet

5.    Gigue

Bach, The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080

1.    Contrapunctus VI

2.    Contrapunctus VII

Fauré, Preludes Op. 103

1.    No. 3 in G minor

2.    No. 6 in E-flat minor

3.    No. 9 in E minor

Ligeti, Etudes

1.    1. No. 11, “En suspens” 

2.    2. No. 13, “L’escalier du diable”

3.    3. No. 16, “Pour Irina”

INTERMISSION 

Nicolas Namoradze, Memories of Rachmaninoff’s “Georgian Song”

Pärt, Für Alina

Pärt, Variationen zur Gesundung von Arinuschka

Rachmaninoff-Namoradze, Adagio from Symphony No. 2, Op. 27

Scriabin, Sonata No. 4 Op. 30

 

TICKETS:

Single Tickets: $45 to $70 

General Admission: $70/$60/$50

Senior & student: $65/$55/$45

Livestream online: $25 per household / live + unlimited listens for 48 hours  

Purchase Tickets: https://steinwaysociety.com/

Box Office: 408.300.5635

Email: office@steinwaysociety.com

Bay Area Michelin Star Restaurants - 2024 Edition (Part 1)

It has been a long while since doing a post about Michelin recommended/starred restaurants--2019 in fact.

The Michelin guide is the most renowned rubric in the world for measuring culinary success. Unfortunately, we have some bad news this year. San Jose's first and only Michelin Star restaurant ever, Adega in Little Portugal, is now permanently closed. The silver lining is that it will be replaced with a second Petiscos restaurant. The original Petiscos is in Downtown San Jose's SoFA District and is not only featured in the guide but is one of San Jose's first two Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurants (a step below a Star and signifying a restaurant is of outstanding value for the quality).

Michelin has three different star categories:

• One Star - A very good restaurant in its category with cuisine prepared to a consistently high standard. A good place to stop on your journey.
• Two Stars - Excellent cuisine, skillfully and carefully crafted dishes of outstanding quality. Worth a detour.
• Three Stars - Exceptional cuisine with distinctive dishes and superlative ingredients. Worth a special journey.

New last year were "Green Stars" for restaurants that are at the forefront of sustainable, environmental, and ethical standards.

There are also restaurants in the Michelin guide that do not get a star, but are considered "Michelin Recommended." This is already a significant honor that a very small percentage of restaurants achieve. This distinction has gotten more rare since the guide now covers all of California instead of just the Bay Area. San Jose has a total of 4 Michelin Recommended restaurants (one of which is now closed), which is down 4 restaurants from 2019. LeYou Ethiopian is the only newcomer.


San Jose Michelin Recommended Restaurants:

• Downtown
• Petiscos $$ (Bib Gourmand)
• East San Jose
• Adega $$$$ (Closed)
• Midtown
• Luna Mexican Kitchen $$ (Bib Gourmand)
• North San Jose
• LeYou $$

I also created a Google doc listing all of the star recipients for 2023, along with tabs for all previous years and some general statistics. 2020-2022 were crazy years and I still have to update data there. I also expect new stars and restaurants to be announced this summer. There is no longer a physical book for California, but Michelin will update their site after new stars are awarded.

Below is an image capture from the doc. This year there were a total of 45 Bay Area restaurants that were awarded Michelin stars, which is down 12 from before the pandemic in 2019. 60% of the restaurants are locating in SF, 18% in Silicon Valley (split evenly between the South Bay and the Peninsula), 18% in Wine Country, 2% in the East Bay, and 2% in Marin. There are 3 new restaurants on the list for 2023 and several that no longer made the cut or were closed down. There were no new Silicon Valley restaurants on the list from 2022, but Selby's and Sushi Shin were both added post-pandemic.

This post is entitled Part 1. As previously mentioned Michelin will announce updates to the guide for Bay Area restaurants this summer. It will be interesting if San Jose can get back in the guide with a starred restaurant. There are certainly several that deserve it. Some of my top picks for addition would be iChina, Le Papillion, and Rollati. We'll have to see if anyone will come along and fill Adega's shoes in Part 2 later this year.

Flashy housing tower expected to break ground within a few months in Downtown San Jose

Orchard Residential is planning to break ground on 540 high-rise residential homes within months at 409 South Second Street. This is the site of the former Bo Town restaurant in the SoFA District.

The design for the tower is stunning, featuring hundreds of staggered balconies and built-in planters to make the building look like a vertical forest. If the final product ends up looking anything like the renders below, it will be one of the most unique projects in Silicon Valley.

The location is also excellent as it is right in the middle of San Jose's arts district. Residents would be able to easily walk to restaurants, bars, galleries, and theaters. 

Source: The Mercury News, aphelion2100 from Skyscraper City

Samsung is launching new AI-focused smartphones in San Jose

Samsung is gearing up to launch their newest flagship devices on January 17th at their North American headquarters, right here in San Jose. The theme is "Galaxy AI is coming." 

It's not entirely clear how Samsung will spice up their lineup but is easy to speculate that they will have components similar to ChatGPT or Google Bard. The new phones could also have new hardware to accelerate AI functionality or apply AI to phone use itself (e.g. predicting what you are going to do and setting up automatic routines). Whatever happens, they'll be filming here.

Samsung's North American Headquarters is located in North San Jose at 3655 North First street.

Source: The Mercury News

Downtown San Jose could be getting a new pet store/hotel/daycare

The "Workingman's Emporium" retail store in Downtown San Jose at North First and Devine Street has been bought by a pet services entrepreneur. The plan is now to convert the 7,900 SQFT property into a care facility and retail store for pets. This would include pet boarding, daycare, and grooming. 

With so many new homes and residents in Downtown San Jose, this will be a major amenity for pet owners that is just a short walk from most major Downtown residential buildings. 

No ETA was provided but given the owner already has has experience in this space and another store that is currently open (Pet Villa in Santa Clara), I wouldn't expect it to be a long wait before the grand opening. 

Source: SiliconValley.com 

Updated photos of the tallest buildings in Santa Clara

Santa Clara is growing up. The Tasman East area at the border with North San Jose and Alviso is going to have several new mixed-use residential towers go live well before Super Bowl 60. Gillynova from Skyscraper City has a ton of new photos of the development in the area.

These are the first residential high-rises in Santa Clara (besides a SCU dorm) and feature surprising amenities like rooftop pools. The towers are 238 and 219 feet tall. There is also a new midrise housing building which you can see below.

There are plans for even more towers in the future courtesy of Related Co, who also wants to build hotels, offices, and an entertainment complex right in front of Levi's Stadium.

Source: gillynova from Skyscraper City

Iconic San Jose tower will be converting offices to homes

Demand for office space is low and housing is high, which will likely lead to several office to housing conversions throughout San Jose. One of the most interesting proposals is by the owners of the historic "Bank of Italy" tower in Downtown San Jose. The building was San Jose's original high rise, and the company that built it eventually became Bank of America. It was actually the tallest building between Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1926 and 1970... 44 years.

The latest proposal is to convert the 13-story office building to between 125 and 150 homes across at least 11 of the floors, in addition to doing significant interior and exterior renovations. The attic below the spire and cupola would also be used to support the residential component (perhaps as amenity space). The plan also references a 1,400 SQFT lower penthouse and 900 SQFT upper penthouse. It's not clear exactly where those would be--if they are part of the tower component above the attic or the terraces along the side.

Dining and retail spaces are also earmarked for the project, including one with a 2nd floor terrace which you can see in the 2nd and last images below. I'm reminded of the old Scott's Seafood location. This could be a really unique spot for a restaurant overlooking Fountain Alley and First Street!

It also looks like they want to add some dynamic lighting elements to the top of the tower, which would be a nice bonus for the project. Hopefully they can get this completed before the market shifts again.

Source: The Mercury News