Keystone Marriott construction update

San Jose is in need of more hotel rooms, especially with the former Fairmont Annex tower now being used as SJSU housing and both the World Cup and Supper Bowl coming to the San Jose Metro in 2026. One of the few active hotel projects currently underway is a new Keystone Marriott near Diridon Station at 495 West San Carlos Street in San Jose

The project is close to both Downtown San Jose and Midtown. The hotel is eight stories and will have 176 rooms, each with a full kitchenette. Two cool features are a courtyard in the middle of the hotel on the fourth floor and a penthouse-level indoor-outdoor lounge with a bar and BBQ pit.

It'll be branded as a Townplace Suites hotel (part of the Marriott family) and is expected to be complete in early 2025. Below the render you can see a recent construction photo with the scaffolding starting to come down.

Source: SJNewKid from Skyscraper City, SFYIMBY

New proposal for a Midtown San Jose Hyatt Place

We have some new renders for a six-story Hyatt Place in Midtown, just a few minutes by car or bus to Downtown San Jose. It appears to replace a parking lot and single-story building at 1470 W. San Carlos Street.

The design actually looks really nice for a midrise building. It's nice to see some color being used besides beige and gray. Given it's location and brand, this will likely be a moderately priced option for San Jose visitors.

With the Signia's second tower converting hotel rooms to student housing, we need all the rooms we can get close to Downtown San Jose for conventions and to support major events (Super Bowl, World Cup, etc.). 

Source: Silicon Valley Joe from Skyscraper City

New hotel proposed across the street from Santana Row

KT Urban has submitted new renderings and an environment review for a hotel that is right across Winchester Boulevard from Santana Row. And by right across, I mean it's facing Maggiano's and Olin Avenue. This is perhaps the single best spot for quickly getting to the center of Santana Row without actually being inside of Santana Row.

The new renderings show a blue brick facade, metal panels, and textured cement. It's 85-feet tall, 7-stories, with an underground floor for parking. There will be 176 guest rooms total, a 4,270 SQFT pool deck and fitness center, and parking for 45 cars and storage for 20 bikes.

On the parcel today is an anachronistic-looking gas station. With most people switching to EVs and 200+ charging stations at Santana Row, I don't think it will be missed.

Construction is expected to last 21 months, and they are hoping to open the project in 2026.

This is a great improvement for this key corner. My complaints are that it could have been much taller, they should have pushed for the maximum height allowable by the FAA. Also the amenity deck with the pool could have been on the roof as opposed to the podium on the 2nd floor. I'm sure this will be a very expensive hotel with a premium brand. Having the pool on the roof with a view of Santana Row or the Santa Cruz mountain would have helped justify the price for weekend guests.

Source: SF YIMBY

Menu for Maui at the Signia San Jose

Executive Sous Chef Joe Derla has a strong personal connection to the islands and crafted a unique menu offering to benefit the Kokua Hospitality and Restaurant Fund. It's called Menu for Maui and it's available at the Fountain Restaurant every Sunday until October 1st. Proceeds will assist fellow restaurant, bar, and hospitality workers displaced be the wildfires in West Maui.

The menu includes items such as ube custard French toast with candied macadamia nuts, braised short rib loco moco with kimchee fried rice, fish with poi, and a pineapple mimosa with Hawaiian salt.

It's a great menu for a great cause. The Signia is located right in front of Plaza de Cesar Chavez in the middle of Downtown San Jose.

The Signia San Jose (former Fairmont) added to ResortPass ☀️🏊🏻🍸🍹

ResortPass is a site for "Daycations" meaning if you live locally instead of staying at a hotel you can pay to come and use the hotel's amenities. This includes things like the pool, poolside bar, gym, and spa. You're essentially a guest, but without the room.

The Signia by Hilton (formerly the Fairmont) is the latest hotel to be added to the program. This is a huge addition as it has the best swimming pool of all the Downtown San Jose hotels and maybe all of the South Bay hotels period. If you have never stayed here, you probably didn't even know this pool even exists. It's hidden on the podium on the 4th floor of the hotel, and looks down at Plaza de Cesar Chavez in the middle of Downtown San Jose. From the park if you look at the hotel and see the palm trees, that's where the pool is.

A day pass costs $50 for adults and $15 for children and includes the pool, steam room, sauna, lounge chairs, towel service, and the fitness center. You can also book a cabana for $130 that is good for 2 adults and 2 children and comes with a complimentary snack pack (two non-alcoholic beverages, popcorn, kettle chips, a protein bar, and candy).

It's a rare opportunity to stay and San Jose's fanciest hotel without paying for a room. You can book your daycation at The Signia over here or check out other San Jose options here. 

Hayes Mansion, the DoubleTree by Hilton, Hyatt House San Jose Airport, Hyatt Place San Jose Airport, and the San Jose Marriott Downtown are also available on the site.

San Jose office building may be converted to residential or hotel

A 10-story, 113-year-old office building at 2 West Santa Clara St. might be converted to become either a residential building or a hotel.

Like many urban areas today, Downtown San Jose has a very high office vacancy rate. In Q2 it was 26.6%, partially because the massive 200 Park office tower was completed, adding greatly to the amount of available office space in the area. Santa Clara is also at 26.1% and San Francisco has a whopping 31.6% office vacancy.

So it makes quite a bit of sense to take some of the older office buildings and convert them to other uses that have more demand. Some of the plans up for consideration for 2 West Santa Clara are 65 residences, a hotel with 147 rooms, or a 73-unit co-living space (e.g. The Grad). 

The building has a great location in central Downtown San Jose but is only 100,000 SQFT and has small floor plates that are not popular with tech companies these days. Since every office has windows already, it should a pretty easy conversion to residential or a hotel.

Source: SFGATE

San Jose's secret hotel

There is a secret hotel hiding in plain sight right across from City Hall. It's called the WhyHotel by Placemakr and it takes up a chunk of MIRO Towers. I believe at some point MIRO struggled to lease all of their apartments, so they partnered with Placemakr to create sort of a hybrid between a hotel and Airbnb.

Since these are technically luxury apartments, all rooms have kitchens and are at least 592 SQFT. The largest room is a 2 bedroom 2 bath for up to 4 people at 1,227 SQFT. Prices are generally the same or less than hotels in the area but you get a ton more space and the convenience of a kitchen and in-unit laundry. 

I'm not aware of any hotels Downtown that have two-bedroom suites as a readily available option (outside of some rare and very expensive Presidential suites). So if you are staying with a larger group of family and friends and don't want multiple rooms, this is likely your best option. If you're curious about what it would be like to live in Downtown San Jose, it's also a nice way to do a test run for a week or so.

Some other perks include a modern fitness center, yoga studio, and private dog park. I'm not sure how long this hotel will be around, so if you're interested here is the link.

Urban Catalyst replacing Garden City Casino with a large mixed-use project

The former Garden City Casino and Harry's Hofbrau area in West San Jose is going to get a significant overhaul. Urban Catalyst would like to build a mixed-use project combining office space, residential, a senior living complex, and a hotel.

Each of these four elements would have it's own dedicated building. Along Saratoga you'll find the office building and hotel. The offices would clock in around 300,000 SQFT across nine stories. The hotel would have 175 rooms, with suitability for both for short and long-term accommodations (I think this will mean two hotel brands sharing the same back-of-house resources and staff). One really neat feature is a rooftop deck above the hotel lobby (or lobbies) with the swimming pool and amenity space.

The residential building will house 425-450 apartments across eight stories. A separate senior living and memory care facility will have 165 units.

This seems like quite a nice proposal. The only element missing is retail--it would be great to see some restaurants and stores on the ground floor of all the buildings. However, Santana Row and Valley Fair are less than a mile away so this is not as critical for this particular area.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose Fairmont Hotel Remodel Complete

The Fairmont, San Jose's first modern luxury hotel, just completed a $10 million+ renovation. The lobby has been completely redone with a contemporary yet classy look. 

Once COVID is finally over, they will be able to open the new bar and lounge space that greets visitors as they walk into the hotel. Hopefully they will still feature live music and dance lessons. 

I also love the new check-in area. The whole design feels new while somehow giving off a historic vibe--like the hotel has always looked this way. It's worth checking out if you're in the area. Oh, and the room rates are now going for as low as $139/night (base rooms are very large at 450 SQFT).

Source: Silicon Valley Joe from the San Jose Development Forum

New Hotel proposed in Little Italy San Jose

Little Italy could get a significant addition in the near future. Developer BPR wants to replace a trio of single-family homes on West St. John Street with a six-story hotel (the homes would likely be relocated). The hotel would have 105 guest rooms and parking for up to 41 vehicles. I'm saying it that way because most of the parking spaces will have mechanical lifts to hold two cars each.

The exact location is across the street from Henry's Hi-life and next to Enoteca La Storia, two excellent restaurants. Bel Bacio Coffee and Paesano Ristorante Italiano are within a block. It would also be next to Guadalupe River Park with easy walking access to the SAP Center and San Pedro Square. This is a great opportunity to create a boutique hotel in an up-and-coming neighborhood that might be little but is big on character.

Source: SVBJ

Le Meridien San Jose Hotel Tower approved

Last week, one of the most ambitious hotel projects in San Jose history received approval by the San Jose City Council. The 24-story Le Meridien hotel will cantilever over the historic Hotel Montgomery, which is currently branded as a Four Points Hotel. The juxtaposition of old and new culminates in a stunning project as you can see below.

A five-story atrium will connect the two hotels together, which are both part of the Marriott portfolio. The new tower will have 274 rooms and one of, if not the best, hotel amenity in San Jose... a rooftop swimming pool.

I can't wait to see this come together and will definitely be planning some stay-cations after this is built!

Source: SVBJ

Atari-themed gaming hotel coming to San Jose

The hottest video game company of the 70s is coming to San Jose in an interesting way. A hotel developer is leasing the Atari brand to create eight video-game themed hotels in the United States and one will be in San Jose.

Each hotel will have an esports studio where pros compete, an Atari gaming playground, event rooms, co-working spaces, movie theaters, a gym, and probably a fun restaurant/bar area. This sounds like a very unique offering compared the the run-of-the-mill business hotels that mostly populate the South Bay. Details are still sparse, but hopefully we'll have more info soon.

Bonus fun fact, the founder of Atari--Nolan Bushnell--also founded the first Chuck E. Cheese in San Jose. Yes, it is the epic two-story one on Tully.  Turns out the first one was actually at 370 South Winchester Blvd in the old Town & Country shopping center, currently Santana Row.

Source: Engadget

Modular hotel coming soon to North San Jose

There hasn't been the same level of innovation in construction over the past several decades as other industries such as computers and health care. One of the major innovations that will greatly reduce construction timeliness and bring down costs is modular construction. Most of the project is built off-site in a factory and the pieces are then assembled like Legos on site.

A new Hilton Garden Inn in San Jose is being built in this fashion by stacking 88 modular units on top of a podium near the airport at 101 east Gish Road. The units even came fully furnished. When complete the five-story hotel will have 150 room spread across 95,000 SQFT. The grand opening is currently slated for Spring 2020.

Source: SVBJ

Two new waterfront San Jose hotels are now open

Marriott has just opened a brand new Residence Inn and Fairfield Inn & Suites in San Jose's northernmost district, Alviso. This will add 261 much-needed rooms to Silicon Valley's pool of hotel facilities. The hotel is within a few miles of most tech companies in the Golden Triangle, as well as Levi's Stadium.

The location is a bit interesting since it is tucked deep into the America Center (Great America Parkway north of Highway 237). A major benefit is it's quiet and you actually get a bay-front view. Not many San Jose hotels can say that.

Residence Inn features all-suite rooms with kitchens, making them ideal for longer trips. Meanwhile the Fairfield Inn & Suites portion of the project is a more traditional hotel with king and double queen rooms.

Amenities include a putting green, basketball court, pickleball, a saltwater pool, fitness center, and a BBQ pit. When driving by I was happy to notice an abundance of EV chargers at the new hotel as well. There also appears to be direct trail access to really take advantage of that bay-front location.

Source: SJ Economy Blog

113-room hotel proposed on Winchester Blvd

A&Z Development LLC submitted a site development permit last month to build a six-story hotel at 1212 S. Winchester Blvd with 113 rooms and 78 parking spaces. This is located about a mile away from Santana Row and a mile from Downtown Campbell.

We are in desperate need for more hotel rooms in Silicon Valley, so this is coming at the perfect time. The proposed hotel would also feature a ballroom, restaurants, and bar.

Source: SVBJ

Google's vision for Diridon takes shape

We are getting closer and closer to the most significant mixed use project in Downtown San Jose history. Last month, the Station Area Advisory Group (SAAG) provided the first public viewing for the initial Diridon Station plan. The key principles for the project are locating jobs and housing near transit, connecting people to nature, creating partnerships, and making sure the San Jose brand is represented.

The numbers being thrown around for this project are surreal. 5.5 million SQFT of new office space followed by another million SQFT on the San Jose Water building site, 3,000-5,000 new housing units, 500,000 SQFT of retail/arts/hotel space, and 15 acres of green spaces.

It will take many years if not decades for this to all come together, but the direction is both promising and exciting.

Source: SJ Economy Blog

Urban Catalyst building a 170-room hotel

Developer Urban Catalyst is planning a 170-room business hotel at 491 W. San Carlos Street, just a couple blocks away from the Children's Discovery Museum and Discovery Meadow. This will be very close to the future Google campus as well, which goes to show how that project is already transforming and expanding the Downtown San Jose landscape.

The initial design for the eight-story hotel is not inspiring, but it will help fill a desperate need for rooms near Downtown San Jose. For all of the details, hit the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

Lew Wolff helps move along a 19-story hotel project

Lew Wolff, one of the key developers responsible for the Fairmont San Jose, is now in talks to purchase a 19-story hotel project next to the Hotel DeAnza. The deal is expected to close in September and would bring the project much closer to becoming a reality.

This would likely be a trendy brand catering to young professionals that do not want to rent cars (there will be no on-site parking). It also features some really nice amenities like a rooftop restaurant and bar.

San Jose is in desperate need of more hotel rooms to support local companies and events. New hotel projects like this and the cantilevered Tribute Hotel can't come soon enough.

Source: SVBJ

Dual-branded hotel and condo coming Downtown

A unique multi-use building is coming to the corner of Clinton Place and Stockton Avenue, which is on the border of Downtown San Jose and The Alameda. The nine-story (97-foot-tall) project would host two different hotel brands, a Courtyard by Marriott and a Residence Inn. Combined they would have 311 hotel rooms and three stories of underground parking.

What is even more interesting than two hotel brands in a single building, is the fact that they are also building 19 market-rate condos on the top floor. This is the first time in Silicon Valley proper that condos are being included as part of a hotel project. Yet even more unusual, these are entry-level hotel brands. Typically you find condos that share hotel facilities in hotels like the Four Seasons, St. Regis, or Ritz Carlton. This goes to show how in-demand housing is in the area.

The hotels and condos are an easy walk to Whole Foods, the SAP Center, and Diridon. When Google builds their headquarters Downtown, these will be the closest rooms to their offices. It's a safe bet that nightly rates will be astronomical throughout the workweek.

If final approval from the city is received within 10 months, the hotels could be ready by 2020.

I'm happy to see more hotel rooms proposed for the area, but the building aesthetics could use some work. We don't want another AC Hotel fiasco (this kind of looks like a prison as well). Each new project should bring additional character to San Jose, and this looks quite generic. At minimum, perhaps they could utilize the giant roof area to build a park/outdoor lounge for guests and residents. The Pierce is a great example of how you can build something without height that is visually appealing and is additive to the neighborhood.

Source: SVBJ

New hotel planned for SoFA

San Jose's artsy SoFA District is about to get a much needed new hotel. Downtown San Jose is starving for more rooms with occupancy and room rates hitting astronomical figures--we're talking up to $550 a night (with taxes & fees) for a normal room at the Fairmont in the middle of the week.

Krishna Hotels is planning to build a 106-room, seven-story hotel at the corner of South Second and East Reed. Two stories of parking with 39 spaces would be built underground. While not a huge hotel, every extra room matters at this point. The location is also in an undeserved area close enough for San Jose business travelers but also far enough from the Downtown core that it can add more foot-traffic and vibrancy to SoFA.

The Hotel would be built on what is now and empty parcel. No timeline has been given so far.

Source: SVBJ