March 2015 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• Two bold ideas to rejuvenate St. James Park are in the works:
• To create a "Levitt Pavilion," a permanent music pavilion that would feature a minimum of 50 family friendly events each year ranging from 500 and 5,000 attendees. The Pavilion would either be at St. James between either First and Second streets or Second and Third streets.
• SPUR is suggesting a Parks Management District that would enable portions of the park to be offloaded from the city's Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services department. This would make it easier to make capital and security improvements to the park.
• M Eat-Play-Lounge at the corner of Second and San Fernando is now open (where PF Changs used to be).
• At Third and San Fernando, T-Mobile is opening a store in a space vacated long ago by Blockbuster.
• My Milkshake is open on South Second and allows patrons to design their own custom milkshake [Josh: have been here and they have great milkshakes]
• The San Jose Earthquakes will open their regular season in the new 18,000 seat Avaya Stadium. More than half of the seats have been snapped up by season ticket holders. The stadium also features the largest outdoor bar in North America--3,647 SQFT with 45 different beers!
• MidPen Housing has started construction on the $31 million Donner Lofts project at 156 E. St. John Street, which includes 102-units and 2,500 SQFT of retail.
• Core Companies is proposing a 105-unit apartment complex at the corner of East Reed and South First (in SoFA).
• The San Jose Fire Museum took a large step towards becoming a reality with a $1 million donation used to buy the Fire Station One building.

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