Little Italy San Jose

Another very interesting project that seems to be progressing nicely is Little Italy San Jose in the River Street area of San Jose (first settlement of Italian Americans to San Jose during the late 19th century). You can see this location in the first image below. Highway 87 is just to the right of that photo and the area is bound by Almaden Blvd to the east and St. John St. to the south.

The idea is to fill the lease-able areas in this district with Italian businesses, to have 3 welcome arches into the area, and to utilize the 87 underpass to connect the Little Italy with the proposed Italian Cultural Center off Notre Dame Ave (second image below), San Pedro Square, and the new San Jose Public Market. This new district will be minutes away from Axis by foot.

I've been reading up on the Little Italy San Jose Blog and Facebook page, and it looks like they have already leased out 2 spaces. The first is to the Sabatino Memorial Family Resource Center, basically an after-school program where kids can learn the Italian language along with Italian culture. I attended something similar when I was a kid for Portuguese language and culture, and I have to say it was worthwhile. The second business is a restaurant currently located in redwood city called Siciliano Ristorante. I always get excited when any new restaurant comes to downtown, so I'll definitely be there opening month.

Like the Public Market, I'll be keeping close tabs on this project and will post short blurbs whenever I get news or find out about new retail. Couple images below, again the first is the Little Italy region and the second is the proposed Italian Cultural Center.