Update on Downtown Condo Sales

This week's edition of the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal has an article with an update on downtown condo sales entitled "Developers see turnaround in downtown San Jose high-rise condo market."

Here are the latest numbers:

• 360 Residences
• 213 Units
• 90 Sold (Opening Soon for Occupancy)
• Axis
• 329 Units
• 86 Sold
• The 88
• 197 Units
• 57 Sold
• City Heights
• 124 Units
• 92 Sold

To read the full article click here.

Happy Hollow Park & Zoo Grand Opening Weekend

Yesterday I took my goddaughter to the grand re-opening of Happy Hollow! The renovations and expansions are pretty impressive, this is definitely not the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo I remember from my childhood.

The park is now divided into 3 main sections: 1.) massive children's play area with rides and a titanic-sized play set  2.) the main zoo 3.) petting zoo (part of section 2 in the old park) and lemur play area. While everything was substantially renovated, what impressed me the most was the third section--which had one of the most innovative designs I have ever seen in an amusement park. A huge chunk of this area was themed around lemurs; however, instead of just having an expansive zoo exhibit of lemurs there is also a lemur-themed play area adjacent to it. So kids can essentially watch the lemurs while immediately imitating there actions in the play area. Excellent idea!

The entrance, store, restaurant, restrooms, and education facilities are all brand new. There are several new rides as well as new animal exhibits. Also, there are quite a few improvements still to come. Several areas are under construction and there are still 3 animal exhibits that haven't opened yet: bats, bees, and foxes.

One observation I had while walking back to the car was just how much underutilized space there is in Kelly park. We're talking dozens of acres here. How nice would it be to eventually build out a full zoo equivalent to San Francisco or Oakland? I think this current renovation and expansion will put Happy Hollow on the map as an exceptional children's park, but a full-blown zoo would increase it's appeal to a much larger audience. It could also be a profitable venture for San Jose, just a thought!

San Pedro Square Market Video

Short video with a nice walk-through of what will become the San Pedro Square Market. I would love to be out on that second floor balcony on a nice day like today, can't wait to see what will go in that space:

St. Patty's Day Post: Irish Innovation Center Opens Downtown!

Last Sunday I was able to get into the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Irish Innovation Center located in Downtown San Jose. These offices will be a launching pad for Irish startup companies that want a presence in Silicon Valley. The event was a huge success with encouraging speeches from Brian Cowen (Prime Minister of Ireland), Chuck Reed, Sam Liccardo, Dr. Craig Barrett (former CEO of Intel), Tom McEnery, and Gordon Ciochon (Former Head of Global Operations at Symantec). We need to continue to keep the San Jose entrepreneurial community active and this is a giant step in the right direction. If we can center that entrepreneurial community in the middle of Downtown San Jose, then that's just icing on the cake.

I'll have some photos from the event for you soon, but for now I can offer you the shortest Sam Liccardo interview of all time courtesy of David Manzo:

San Jose Opens/Closes the Nasdaq Today

To celebrate 20 years of the Nasdaq having a presence in Silicon Valley, the opening and closing ceremonies were done from the City Hall rotunda today. With 203 out of the 513 companies listed on the Nasdaq calling Silicon Valley home, maybe the Nasdaq should consider a more permanent move, don't you think?

JoAnn Freda from San Jose Day-by-Day happened to make it to the opening ceremony and has a great blog post about it--her 100th blog post in fact! She even took some photos at the event like the one below. Read her post here!

San Pedro Square Market Letters of Intent!

Are you guys ready for an update regarding my favorite upcoming project in Downtown San Jose? While I can't provide any names besides Barefoot Coffee and Veggielution, I can tell you what types of vendors have signed Letters of Intent for the San Pedro Square Market!

• Barber Shop
• Bike Rentals
• I can give you a little more info about this one. These are supposed to be electronic bikes that you can rent and ride all around downtown (the electronic assist will work for ~20 miles). When you're done, they plug them in and recharge the battery for the next rider.
• Cards
• Chocolate (unconfirmed)
• Concierge
• Falafels
• Flowers (unconfirmed)
• Frozen Custard (supposed to be amazing)
• Fruit Smoothies
• Gorditas
• Guatemalan Imports
• Gyros (unconfirmed)
• Italian Food
• Latino Kitchen Products
• Pho
• Produce
• Raviolis
• Sausages (unconfirmed)
• Shirts and Caps
• Spring Rolls
• Tamales and Enchiladas
• Toffee
• Wine Bar

Many more Letters of Intent are pending and hopefully we can get actual names soon! I have more information about ideas that are being thrown that will create some synergy between the vendors, but I'll save that for another post later this week. If you have any thoughts on what other types of vendors you would like to see at the Market, please post in the comments!

San Jose 2030

I have to tell you guys about an amazing new endeavor that videographer David Manzo has embarked on. His plan is to fully document Downtown's transformation over the next 20 years in a project called San Jose 2030! Over the next several months, he will be videotaping and photographing key areas throughout downtown including the San Pedro Square Market Site, Saint James Park, and other places of historic significance. As major changes occur, he will go back and re-record those areas in stunning high definition. Not only will this capture significant eras in San Jose's history, but it will provide a time lapse of how Downtown will grow and achieve new heights over the next 2 decades!

To start tracking Dave's progress, access the San Jose 2030 Facebook page here! A website is also coming soon.

130 New Homes Coming to Santana Row

Finally a major housing project is moving forward in San Jose! Barry Swenson has been contracted to build 130 new apartments (flats and townhomes) in the 1.5 acre parking lot behind Santana Row's Borders Bookstore. The project will be at least 5 floors, 4 stories of residential on top of a parking garage which will hopefully accommodate more than just the residents. The new units will likely by rented out first and then sold as condos. Federal Realty is expected to foot a bill of around $30 million, or just under a quarter million per unit. If it sounds cheap per unit, don't forget to factor in the value of the land these units are sitting on top of.