First up is the vacant two-story flagship Borders space. H&M will be taking over that location to become a retail anchor and triple their square footage at the row. This will also free up an 8,000sqft corner location, which I imagine won't be empty for long.
Second is a massive new Class A office building that will be on the corner of Winchester across the street from Eli Thomas and stretch all the way to Thea. We're talking 220,000 square feet--more than double the office space Santana row has now--and they are planning to get rents in the Downtown Mountain View range. They are also looking to lease to a single high-tech tenant, opening another "headquarters" opportunity for San Jose.
The new office building will also have 660 new underground parking spaces, which will be open to everyone on nights, weekends, and holidays.
Source: The Merc, SJBJ
Good news for SR! However, as SR adds expanded high end stores, luxury apartments and new office space...downtown San Jose adds? Perhaps another yogurt joint in the near future? Sorry for the sour grapes Josh, but our REAL downtown is getting no love these days.
ReplyDeleteHow hard would it be to link SR with downtown via light rail or some kind of people-mover? That would be cool!
ReplyDelete@anon1251,
ReplyDeleteThe VTA has plans to implement bus rapid transit (BRT) along Stevens Creek/W. San Carlos. BRT would apparently entail dedicated bus lanes and station-like bus stops. I personally don't see how this will work out in the vicinity of SR/VF as the right of way is narrow with apparently no room for dedicated bus lanes. I agree that a people mover or perhaps Vegas-style monorail would work between SR/VF and downtown Diridon.
BRT ... that's too bad. I guess it's the cheaper option. LR is very expensive which I've never quite been able to understand (although I'm not an engineer!).
ReplyDeleteThanks!
They will do what they do now. Cut over to Forest before 880 and then back on Stevens Creek at Winchester. There are no bus lines that are on Stevens Creek between 880 and Winchester.
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone is gonna shop and Gucci and then hop on a bus, rapid of not. Get real, San Jose, and quit ignoring your downtown core. You'd think there'd be some kind of direction from Sam Liccardo or some other city leader. This city never fails to confuse, miss opportunities and generally disappoint.
ReplyDeleteOf course that's true, although I would venture to say most people at SR are buying an ice cream at Ben & Jerry's rather than handbags (or whatever they sell) at Gucci. It's pie in the sky stuff anyways, but the idea of decent, reliable, clean etc transit (preferably not BRT) connecting DT with SR would certainly be a great addition to our city.
DeleteAgree: BRT sucks compared to light-rail, people mover or monorail.
DeleteBy the way, was taking a trip down memory lane earlier: researching what might have been had the Palladium Project of the early 2000's come to fruition. Perhaps we would have been talking about H&M in downtown San Jose vs Santana Row had the project been built. Brings tears to my eyes thinking of what might have been... :(
I don't think Downtown is being ignored. The San Pedro Market is really coming along, past two times I have been there it was packed. Most of the first building is open and the second should be opening soon. There are more now restaurants open Downtown than at any point in the past, more retail shouldn't be too far behind. The convention center is in the process of a huge renovation. A's Stadium has at least a 50/50 shot, and the Earthquakes stadium will be close enough to Downtown to have an impact.
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