Silicon Valley Annual Check-up

In the video below Joint Venture CEO Russel Hancock summarizes the key learnings from the 2021 Silicon Valley Index. This year, special attention was paid to the impacts of the Coronavirus on our local economy. Other topics include income inequality, racial demographics, housing imbalances, patent registrations, and venture capital funding. The presentation provides an objective look at how our region is doing compared to previous years as well as the rest of the country.

If you find the content interesting, you can also read the whole 150-page study over here.

St. Patty's Day in Downtown San Jose

Downtown San Jose will be illuminated in green until March 17th for St. Patrick's Day. If you are in the area, these are the places you should pay special attention to:

• Security and Leticia Buildings at 70 S. First St.
• Twohy Building at 210 S. First St.
• The Pavilion at 150 S. First St.
• Circle of Palms on S. Market Street.
• Post Street between S. Market and S First streets
• San Pedro Square
• Fairmont Anex
• Bamboo Panda Mural on S. First St.

"Lucky the Leprechaun" will also be making an appearance at more than 30 different Downtown businesses. If you find him, take a photo and share it on social media with #DTSJlucky or #DTSJlove to be entered in a drawing for gift cards.

If you're looking for themed events, Ludwig's German Table will have a St. Patty's Day stand up comedy show featuring 5 local comics, Mezcal will be serving up Green Margarita's, and Plant Lush is discounting their Oxalis "shamrock" plants by 17% this week (if you find one with a 4-leaf clover it's free).

We could use a bit of luck right now, as could our local businesses so let's support them!

March 2021 Downtown Dimension Highlights

The latest addition of Downtown Dimension is now live. Below is a summary of the content this month.

The MARCH Downtown Dimension is now available for download.
 
On the Front Page:  

• Learn about what international developer Westbank and local developer Urban Community have planned for downtown San Jose.  Five large projects designed by some of the world's best architects.  The Orchard. Energy Hub. Park Habitat. Arbor. And the renovation of the Bank of Italy.  We explain why Westbank has chosen San Jose to be be its fifth city of major investment, joining Vancouver, Toronto, Tokyo and Seattle.
• San Jose police have a plan to curb robberies, burglaries and quality-of-life crimes and Dimension has the details.

Also this month:

• SJDA opens a dog park in SoFA District.
• Natural Sweet Delight opens in SoFA Market.  The co-owners are among several new downtown businesses that chose to open during the pandemic, investing in the future of downtown.
• The Chef's Market came up with positive results.  Five downtown eateries gave a meal to a person in need for every meal sold to customers.

SJDA's next public meeting will be Friday, April 9 at 8:15 a.m. via Zoom.  Te agenda includes a presentation on the Westbank / Urban Community projects and guest speaker is Zulma Maciel, director of the city'sOffice of Racial Equity.
 
RSVP through SJDArsvp@sjdowntown.com to receive a link and PIN code to the meeting.

We're back in the Red Tier, indoor dining is back!

This week we officially went from a Covid tier status of purple to red, which means indoor dining is open for business again! Hopefully restaurants will never close like this again (everyone please get your vaccine as soon as you can). As a reminder the scale goes from purple, to red, to orange, and finally to yellow which has the fewest restrictions.

Restaurants will be able to open their indoor dining rooms again effective immediately. However, they will be limited to 25% of their maximum capacity or 100 guests, whichever number is lower. 

What else can we look forward to in the red tier? Movie theaters can reopen at 25% as can museums, zoos, and aquariums. Stores can now operate at 50% capacity. Even indoor gyms can finally reopen, albeit at a meager 10% capacity.

California is also planning to ease the requirements to get into less restrictive tiers when we hit two different milestone. The first is when we distribute 2 million vaccines in the most disadvantaged zip codes, and then when we hit 4 million vaccines in those same areas.

The stats have been looking very promising in the Bay Area--let's hope this nightmare ends soon and the post-covid era will be another Roarin' 20s.

SoFA Dog Park now open

We need more active public spaces to help brighten San Jose, especially as we move towards a post-COVID19 world. The smaller projects the build culture and a sense of place are just as important as the high-rise development proposals we're getting. 

A new dog park has just opened in San Jose and it's right in the heart of Downtown San Jose's artsy SoFA district. It features separate play areas for big and small dogs, benches, sanitizing stations, waste bags, and water bowls.

Next to the dog park will be a Demonstration Garden set to open in late Spring with planters, a Veggielution farmstand, and flexible furniture. The farmstand will sell fruit and vegetables but there will also be a food truck and carts to allow for pop-up events.

Together, this will make for a pretty cool space in SoFA to compliment several new restaurants, lounges, and development projects coming to the area (seriously, everyone should check out Petiscos by ADEGA--amazing restaurant).

The new pocket park is located at 540 S. First Street and is open from 7am to 8pm every day. A Grand Opening is planned for April 2021 and the full press release is below.

SoFA Dog Park Opening Day Fact Sheet

Presented by the San Jose Downtown Association

Thursday, Feb. 18 | 10 am - 1 pm | 540 S. 1st Street 

What:

• SoFA Pocket Park (dog park-portion only) opening 

• This is a fun, inviting space for dogs, dog owners and the community to enjoy

• "Another way to activate public spaces for the community in a positive way."

• Dog park will feature artificial turf, a double-entry gate, outdoor furniture, basic dog amenities and separate areas for bigger and smaller dogs 

• Demonstration Garden (opens in late Spring) will feature raised planter beds, garden storage, farmstand, and movable furniture. The farmstand will sell fresh fruit and vegetables and occasionally offer pop-up events through their food truck and food carts.

Visuals:  Dogs and people playing together. We have five owners and canines reserved to be at the park from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday.

When:

• Thursday, Feb. 18 from 10 am - 1 pm

• Daily Hours: 7 am - 8 pm (subject to change) 

• "Pocket Park" Grand Opening planned for April 2021 - includes demonstration garden

Where:

• 540 S First Street in Downtown San Jose

Why:

• To revitalize an underutilized lot and transform it into a temporary area for the community until the ownership’s development team moves forward with a permanent project

• Wanted to provide a fun, lively, inviting space for dogs, dog owners and the downtown community to enjoy and hang out in (while socially distanced and wearing masks)

• A fun addition to the South First Area (SoFA District) 

• Dogs and their dog owners usually stop by the small strip of grass outside of where the SoFA Pocket Park currently is, so this park will provide these pets and their owners a fun little space to enjoy on their daily walks

• “Mission to bring people together to activate downtown San Jose in new and positive ways.” - Urban Community principal Jeff Arrillaga

• “Public space has never been more valued and important as we deal with the confines of daily life during the pandemic. SoFA Pocket Park is a non-traditional public space that combines a dog park -- open now -- and a community garden -- coming soon.  Our goal was to create a little oasis in the midst of downtown that will offer some pleasurable respite and be welcoming to everyone.”  - Scott Knies, Executive Director of the San Jose Downtown Association

Who:

• Presented by the San Jose Downtown Association with Veggielution

• Property Owner:  Urban Community

• Sponsors: Knight Foundation, Urban Catalyst, Topa Architecture, Google, Urban Community, Hamilton Builders, JJ Perez Paving

• Dog park will be maintained by downtown’s Property Based Improvement District (PBID)

• Demonstration Garden will be operated and maintained by Veggielution

• Project partner, Veggielution, is an urban farm from East San Jose expanding their presence downtown to generate opportunities for their food entrepreneur incubator program, Eastside Grown. 

• This park is for local residents and the greater community

Urban Catalyst announces Fund II

Urban Catalyst, one of Downtown San Jose's premier developers, has officially started fundraising for their second round of projects. 

Fund I included multiple projects spanning office space (such as the former Camera 12 Theater), student housing, senior housing, and a hotel. Fund I was so successful it was actually oversubscribed in terms of investment. Their goal was to raise $105 million and they closed funding with $131 million on December 30th of last year.

Fund II involves two large projects, Icon and Echo. One is a residential high-rise with 300 apartments while the other consists of modern office space with large floor plates adding up to 420,000 SQFT. Both will be steps from City Hall and one of our future BART stations. They seem to be around 20 stories and likely reach the maximum height legally allowed.

If you would like to invest in Fund II, you might have to reach deep in your pockets since the minimum investment is $250,000. At least Fund II doesn't close until the end of 2024, giving you some extra time to look under the couch cushions. Construction on the projects is expected to begin in 2022, even before funding officially closes.

For more information and some renders, check out the short video below. If you have your checkbook handy, you can click here.

New Gastro Lounge (eventually) coming to SoFA

Post-COVID I think there will be a lot of interesting new places to check out Downtown. One that's definitely on my radar is Good Spot in SoFA. It's a 7,500 SQFT gastro-lounge right in the heart of our arts district founded by a native San Josean.

It's going to have a much more chill atmosphere than a club, as you can probably tell by the sloth on the logo. However, it will eventually have indoor live music and has a slick rooftop patio. There are also plans to turn the second floor into a VIP space, local art gallery, and beer garden overlooking 2nd Street.

The a menu will consist of locally-sourced small plates from Southeast Asia, including Thai, Vietnamese, and Chinese cuisine. They'll be in good company as Petiscos is serving up Portugal's version of tapas across the street.

Other places to look forward to are The Guildhouse, a new gamer lounge in SoFA; and San Pedro Social, a Bowling Alley featuring vintage arcades, pool, and karaoke on Santa Clara Street.

Source: San Jose Inside

Singer-songwriter Maddy Michaels release her debut single, Sanity on February 19th, 2021

Maddy Michaels, a singer-songwriter based in San Jose, is releasing her new single entitled "Sanity" next week on Feb 19th. I really like her cover of Head Above Water which you can find over here. Now's the time to support local artists so that hopefully we can enjoy a live music scene in San Jose again later this year (🤞 for summer). Check out Sanity on your favorite streaming platform Feb 19th!

“In sharing my mental health experience with others, I want to let them know they are not alone and encourage them to connect not only to my music but to those around them as we embark on this journey called life” -Maddy Michaels

 

San Jose, CA: The single Sanity from Maddy Michaels makes its digital debut on February 19th, 2021. It conveys her vulnerability and her experience with overwhelming anxiety. The intimate and honest lyrics woven into this pop-power ballad invite listeners to relate and connect to her music. Her message brings awareness to the highly stigmatized topic of mental health and sheds light on the emotional and mental obstacles faced by so many today. Sanity provides listeners with an uplifting message and inspires people to keep moving forward, though the path may be difficult. Michaels hopes her song will bring listeners optimism in 2021 as the world continues to face unprecedented challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 

Sanity, produced and engineered by West Australian artist HILLOC, features a live band and string arrangement by Kevin Fong that brings the song to new heights. The track features HILLOC on keys, Brad Roberts on Guitar, Sebastian Valencia on Bass, Eric Hart on Drums, Alyssa Barker and Emily Gelineau on Violin, Ben Eyink and Megan Pham on Cello, and Noah Leong and Cecelia Cook on Viola. Cover art by Rachael Ho. 

 

Sanity is available on all streaming platforms on February 19th, 2021. 

Artist Bio: San Jose-based singer-songwriter and performer Maddy Michaels performs across a variety of genres. Her music and uplifting lyrics bring awareness to personal experiences and current social issues. Michaels music encourages audiences to find a path forward during these unprecedented times.  

“Music helps me through difficult times, I use music as a way to express myself and to help bring encouragement to the world.” -Maddy Michaels