50 West And Downtown Property Owners Unveil "The Halo" of Lights at the Circle of Palms!

Brace yourself for a HUGE improvement to Downtown Ice and the Circle of Palms area in Downtown San Jose this year. A state-of-the-art LED lighting system was just installed on the 32 palm trees in the circle. The lights can illuminate in any color, be individually controlled, and can even be synced to music. I love this concept, the SJDA should be really proud of this project! Check out the video below for a demonstration.

This is exactly the type of lighting that we should install throughout Downtown! The best part is that the lighting system will be staying put even after Downtown Ice ends. I think it will complement the San Jose Museum of Art quite nicely.

As for Downtown Ice, it opens today with a special unveiling of "the Halo" at 6pm. Every night from 6pm-9pm there will be a light show synced to music. The rink will be open until 10pm Sunday through Thursday and until Midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

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Downtown Ice outdoor skating rink opens 

FRIDAY, NOV. 15 in Downtown San Jose

What / When:

FRIDAY, NOV. 15, 6 p.m.  -  PHOTO OPPORTUNITY:  The unveiling of “The Halo,” a light show of high-powered state-of-the-art RGB pixel light strings on the 32 palms comprising the Circle of Palms, choreographed to music.

To see a test of the light display conducted last week, click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHz0fYeO1ko&feature=em-upload_owner

The lights will be up year-round and were installed to coincide with the opening of Hawaiian Airlines-Kristi Yamaguchi Downtown Ice skating rink at the same location. When not dancing to music, the lights remain on a “screen-saver”-like mode that loops every 40 minutes.

During the skating season, the choreographed light and music shows will take place at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. nightly.                    

Who:            

The San Jose Downtown Association produces Downtown Ice and manages the beautification activities of the downtown PBID. 

CBRE Global Investors, the owner of 50 West, the property on which the Circle of Palms and Downtown Ice rink resides.

Where:        

Circle of Palms located between the San Jose Museum of Art and the Fairmont Hotel, 120 Market St., downtown San Jose.

Visuals:      

The iconic ice rink celebrates its 10th year.  The rink combines two circular ice sheet:  one inside the 32 palms, the other outside the circle of trees.

The palms, which previous shined in white lights, now sport RGB pixel light strings that can produce every color in the spectrum.  The lights can be programmed to form patterns and can change into colors that match a musical soundtrack.

More When:

The annual Hawaiian Airlines / Kristi Yamaguchi Downtown Ice Skating Rink opening celebration is 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29, just before the official opening of Christmas in the Park.

Rink is open 5 p.m.-midnight Friday

Noon-midnight Saturday

Noon- 10 p.m. Sunday

5 p.m.- 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday     

2013 San Jose Holiday Art Market

Come support local art and artists at the San Jose Holiday Art Market this weekend! The event takes place at the Historic Reed House (San Jose Landmark #160) at 328 North 6th Street from 11am-4pm and you can see some of the items that were sold last year at http://sjartmarket.wix.com/shop. More information below.

PRESS RELEASE

Name of event:  2013 San Jose Holiday Art Market

Date and Time:  Saturday, November 16, 2013 11:00am-4:00pm and

                            Sunday, November 17, 2013 11:00am-4:00pm

Venue:                The Historic Reed House

Street address:   328 North Sixth Street, San Jose, CA

Admission cost: FREE

Contact Person: Dianne Hoffman 415-519-5779 / sjartmarket@gmail.com

Website:              http://sjartmarket.wix.com/shop

Description of event:

The San Jose Holiday Art Market returns to the Historic Reed House for its 3rd annual exhibition the weekend of November 16th & 17th. This exquisite arts, crafts, & design fair is free to attend and will run from 11am - 4pm each day, providing an excellent and fun opportunity to get a jump start on your holiday shopping.

A beautiful Victorian home in the Hensley District, the Historic Reed House is classified as San Jose's landmark #160. A unique and intimate salon setting will feature a top-notch group of select Bay Area talents. Complimentary tea and holiday sweets will be offered on both days.

Expect to find a wide variety of incredible handmade goods at the Market - ranging from assemblage, dolls, jewelry, paintings, photography, sculpture, terrariums, and more.

For every $10 spent, customers will receive a raffle ticket to enter in an hourly drawing. Winners will be awarded handmade, original works donated by participating artists.

Gray Matter Analytics Comes to San Jose

Yet another company is branching out to Downtown San Jose. Gray Matter is a data analytics consulting firm based in Chicago. They are hoping to have about 50 employees Downtown by 2015. No exact address has been determined yet, but I'm sure we will be getting that information in the not-too-distant future.

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Gray Matter Analytics Breaks onto Tech Scene with Analytical Predictive Modeling Services

Big Data Company Offers Healthcare and Financial Institutions Opportunity to Gain a New and Distinct Edge Over Competitors

CHICAGO, IL – Gray Matters Analytics, a recently launched consulting firm with offices in Chicago and San Jose, offers data analytics and predictive modeling consulting services for healthcare and financial institutions. Founded by Shelia Talton in 2013 Gray Matter Analytics offers a unique product neutral service focused on business value that helps clients increase productivity, efficiency and revenue growth.

“Analysis shows aggressive growth projections for data analytics, predicative modeling and cloud computing,” said Shelia Talton, CEO of Gray Matter Analytics. “Our strategy is to empower enterprise customers in healthcare and financial services for success by helping them gain insight into their data as well as the industry and public data they need to aggregate in order to make informed business decisions.”

New advances in technology are allowing a simplified yet innovative approach to data analysis and predictive modeling services. Gray Matter Analytics enables clients to ask questions about their data, understand what the data is telling them, and uncover the quick wins that can help identify their return on investment in the implementation of comprehensive data architecture. These capabilities allow clients to rapidly identify the best solution for their business objectives, whether it’s increased productivity, efficiency, growth or all of the above.

“Companies are struggling to solve important business issues and to make better, fact-based decisions,” continued Talton. “With the use of the Gray Matter Advanced Analytics Center, these organizations can leverage critical resources to improve their use of data analytics, an area where they need specialized consulting services in order to compete.”

Gray Matter Analytics provides a “Mind” Assessment that includes a unique, eight-week evaluation with in-depth analysis that provides a comprehensive understanding of client’s business objectives and enterprise architecture. The process is comprised of four phases, define, measure, analyze and recommend. In the first phase experts examine current data usage and business objectives, followed by industry comparisons in the second phase. An ROI analysis and road map make up the third portion of the assessment and the process is concluded with accelerated solutions.

Consultations are provided by professionals with technology consulting experience in financial services and healthcare institutions as well experience in big data, data architecture, statistics and predictive analytics.

For more information on Gray Matter Analytics visit: http://graymatteranalytics.com.

Valley Fair Expansion and New Stores

It looks like that much talked about Valley Fair expansion originally detailed in 2009 is finally moving forward. The recession put a stop to Westfield's ambitious plans to add 650,000 SQFT of retail space, bringing the mall to over 2 million SQFT and making it far and away the largest mall in Northern California. In late October, Westfield applied for a building permit to build a 6-story, 1.4 million SQFT parking structure at the corner Monroe and Forest Avenue, which is presumably to prepare for it's expansion.

Inside the mall, they are continuing to shoot for higher-end retailers. In 2014, Giorgio Armani will be opening a store. Exclusive brands like Rabeanco, Miu Miu, Prada, David Yurman, and Ferragamo have already opened up shop. Others like Banana Republic and Brookstone are upgrading to flagship stores. They even remodeled what was already a pretty nice food court to better cater towards shoppers with expensive tastes. It will be really interesting to see what this mall ends up looking like after the next few years.

Source: Anonymous Poster, SVBJ

The new Prada store at Valley Fair

City Ventures Building 550 Homes at Former IBM Site

Quite a few developments are in the queue for the area where 101 and 85 meet in South San Jose (where there was once an IBM Disk Drive facility). City Ventures will be one of the first to break ground and will turn 14 acres near Cottle and Monterey roads in 550 homes, 400 of which will be rentals (4-story building wrapped around a parking garage). The 150 for-sale units will all feature solar panels and will be prewired for electric cars in the garages. The project is also near the Blossom Hill Caltrain station, giving residents easy access to anything on the Caltrain corridor.

Lennar is also planning to build 840 units on 40 acres. St. Anton Partners is building a 275-unit apartment complex, and Hunter Properties is already under construction with a large retail project in the area. When all is said and done, the area will have almost 3,000 housing units and 320,000 SQFT of retail space.

Source: SVBJ

City Ventures Homes in Morgan Hill

The Wizard of Oz Comes to the Montgomery Theater Starting this Friday

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The Wizard of Oz will kick off the 46^th season for CMT San Jose, when Dorothy skips down the yellow brick road all the way to the Montgomery Theater, November 15-24 for the CMT San Jose Rising Star production of the classical musical.

Due to the overwhelming number of auditioners, over 200, CMT added two shows and an additional cast. Tickets are $18 for adults and $14 for children and can be obtained by calling (408) 288-5437 or www.cmtsj.org/content/sale.

Dorothy, Toto and the rest of the gang will be one of four CMT Rising Stars shows in production. The next round of auditions are January 7-8 for the theater company’s spring shows. CMT is committed to casting all that audition.

Other CMT Rising Star performances include: Pirates of Penzance (February 27-March 2), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (May 1-4), and Oklahoma, July 11-20. CMT will close out its season with Disney’s Jungle Book for performers aged 6 to 9 on August 7-10. A full schedule is here: http://cmtsj.org/content/stage

CMT has a 10-show schedule that can be seen here: http://cmtsj.org/content/stage

Veterans Day Parade Today

There will be a Veterans Day parade today starting at noon from Delmas Street Downtown. The parade will travel east along Santa Clara Street and then turn onto Market Street. There will also be a memorial ceremony at 11am in Plaza de Cesar Chavez.

Source: San Jose Metblogs

School of Rock Opens in San Jose

A new music school has just opened at 5035 Almaden Expressway focusing on rock music (but not exclusive to that genre). There are classes for both kids and adults, novices and experts, and they specialize in a variety of instruments such as guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and vocals for both kids and adults. Sounds like a neat spin to make learning instruments more engaging for kids. Check out the video below for details.

Source: SVBJ, School of Rock San Jose