Soccer in San Jose

Visit San Jose has just released a video promoting soccer in San Jose. It's only 90 seconds long, and highlights tailgating, PayPal Park, and our awesome Earthquakes fanbase. Enjoy it embedded below.

Goodwill buys San Jose office building for $17 million

Goodwill of Silicon Valley has just purchased an empty building at 1600 Technology Drive in North San Jose near the airport. The shiny eight-story building is destined to become Goodwill's new headquarters.

They will also use the facilities for job training and employment opportunity services, including no-cost skills training to benefit the local community.

Goodwill got the deal of the century on the building. It was previously valued at $92.4 million in January of 2024. So they paid 81.6% less than the assessed value for the 198,000 SQFT building.

The purchase was made possible by a $10 million donation from MacKenzie Scott (Jeff Bezos' ex-wife). 

Goodwill plans to immediately start relocating administrative and operations staff to the new building. Any unutilized space will be shared with other local nonprofits.

Source: The Mercury News

Massive Asia Live food complex coming to Valley Fair

I was quite bummed when iChina closed down at Valley Fair. I thought the opulent restaurant was San Jose's best chance at getting another Michelin star. However, the good news is that the space will not be vacant for long.

Asia Live will take that flagship two-story space and expand it to over 12,000 SQFT, including adding a new rooftop terrace and outdoor patio. It will be far more than just a restaurant. It sounds similar to Eataly, but for Asian cuisine. The complex will have a retail marketplace, cafe, lounge, interactive experiences, and entertainment. Diners will be able to watch chefs prep food like dumplings, sushi, and curries.

It has the same owners as China Live in SF and will feature the most popular dishes from that menu including pan-fried pork buns and Peking duck. It will also have sushi, robata (Japanese BBQ), tandoori ovens, and Indonesian rice. The icing on the cake is a bar that will rival the top craft cocktails spots in the Bay Area.

Asia Live is scheduled to open this fall. The sooner the better!

Sources: Eater, SFGATE

Shopping in San Jose

Visit San Jose has just released a video promoting shopping in San Jose  It's less than 90 seconds long, and highlights Santana Row, Valley Fair, Downtown San Jose, and Japantown. 

Santana Row and Valley Fair have become shopping ground zero for the entire Bay Area. While many malls around the country are closing, "Uptown" continues to reel in exclusive brands and experiences. Anyway, check out the short video embedded below.

Dual high-rise project Icon/Echo requests an extension

One of the most anticipated development projects in San Jose is Icon/Echo at 147 East Santa Clara street. It's being developed by the San Jose superfans at Urban Catalyst. This firm has just completed it's Paseo project at the former Camera 12, now featuring Urban Putt and Eos & Nyx. They are also wrapping up a new Marriott Hotel with 176 rooms near the SAP Center.

Icon/Echo is one of Urban Catalyst's most ambitious projects. It'll have two towers, one 265 feet tall and the other 263 feet. Combined they will have 1,039 apartments.

Urban Catalyst has just requested an extension request to extend entitlement approvals by another two years. The financing market is challenging right now, and they need to shore up enough capital before starting construction. They have been successful with other projects in the past, and Downtown San Jose is only expected to get hotter when it comes to residential development in the future. I'm very optimistic we'll get to see this project move forward.

Source: SF YIMBY

San Jose Museums

Our friends at SJ Today have a list of San Jose museums. However, it misses a few interesting ones. After you click through to the link, come back here to see what was excluded.

There is a new Adobe museum on the ground floor of the Adobe Tower 4 headquarters in Downtown San Jose. It's free, has a history of Adobe's software, and has a slick virtual reality room.

Also in Downtown San Jose is a new Italian Heritage museum in Little Italy San Jose. An added bonus is a speakeasy underneath the building.

In Almaden, there is a Quicksilver Mining Museum, which chronicles San Jose's mining industry last century.

Lastly, History Park is not one museum but multiple. Here you will find the Portuguese Historical Museum, the Viet Museum, and Chinese American Historical Museum. They also have a replica light tower and several restored historical buildings. It's a great place to visit, especially during major events, and you can easily combine it with a trip to the neighboring Japanese Friendship Gardens or Happy Hollow Park & Zoo.

Source: SJ Today

What local artists and writers have to say about Silicon Valley

Opportunity Now has a four-part series on what Silicon Valley means to local artists and writers. There are a lot of interesting perspectives in there, many of which highlight things that we take for granted every day. I shared some of my thoughts in Part 4 below.

What makes Silicon Valley so distinctive? Reflect with local artists, writers, and performers (1/4)

“There’s a way past any obstacle”: Artists praise the steadfast Silicon Valley spirit (2/4)

A window into so many different worlds”: Why Silicon Valley resonates so strongly with local artists (3/4)
Local artists and writers celebrate Silicon Valley’s unique, tenacious, “daring” culture (4/4)

Source: Opportunity Now

Dining and Nightlife in San Jose

Visit San Jose has just released a new video promoting dining and nightlife in San Jose. It's only 90 seconds long, yet highlights a multitude of areas: Valley Fair (Eataly in the opening shot), Santana Row, Downtown San Jose, Willow Glen, The Alameda, San Pedro Square, the Historic District, Qmunity, Little Italy San Jose, Japantown, and SoFA.

The video is a great reminder of all the great options we have in San Jose. Also, it's Friday! The perfect day to go out and try someplace new.