Stealth San Jose Startup Raises $33 Million

One of Silicon Valley's leading VC firms has just given a huge vote of confidence to a San Jose startup. Sequoia Ventures invested $33 Million in VIPtela, a networking company that is still in stealth mode. Word on the street is that they are helping large companies build more agile and secure networks. VIPtela is located at 1735 Technology Drive, near the San Jose airport.

Source: All Things D

Playful People Productions Presents: Disney’s 101 Dalmatians Kids

Dalmatian parents Pongo and Perdita live a happy, quiet life in London with their eight puppies and two human pets – Roger and Anita.  But when their villainous neighbor Cruella De Vil decides to kidnap the puppies with the help of her two henchmen, the race is on for the dogs of London to find and save the puppies before they become another fur coat in Cruella’s collection!

Keep your pups on their leashes!  Disney’s 101 Dalmatians KIDS is certain to charm and delight all audiences.  A fun and spirited adaptation of the classic Disney animated film, performed by a fabulous cast of eager 4-9 year olds who are sure to put a smile on your face!

All Shows at the Historic Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Ave  San Jose, CA 95126

Show Times:

Friday, January 17th  7:00pm

Saturday, January 18th 10:00am,  2:00pm and 7:00pm

Sunday, January 19th 10:00am and 2:00pm

Tickets available at www.playfulpeople.net

$12 attendees 12 and up, and $8 children 11 and under

Tickets at the door (30 minutes prior to curtain)

$15 attendees 12 and up, and $10 children 11 and under

For questions: barb@galiotto.com

Playful People Productions provides a quality, caring environment in which children, youth & their families have positive theatre experiences, while being involved in many aspects of on-stage/ back-stage theatre. Our company fills a need of providing beginning through advanced theatre for the whole family to the community. The founders have expanded the program to include classes & summer camps.

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Healthiest Housing Market in the US

According to Zillow, San Jose has the healthiest housing market in the country. Right behind us is San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles in 3rd place and San Diego in 4th. Sacramento came in 10th place, meaning five of the top 10 housing markets are currently in California.

This should help reduce the number of homeowners that are underwater with their mortgage and overall foreclosures, but continued housing appreciation will also make it more difficult for people to afford to live here.

Source: NBC News, Hat tip to Barclay Livker

Cavium Doubles San Jose Office Space

Cavium is a networking company that was founded in three small office rooms in San Jose back in 2000. They eventually moved to Santa Clara, then Mountain View, and in 2011 they returned home to San Jose. Now, they are expanding their footprint in North San Jose by signing a lease for a neighboring 111,000 SQFT building at 2345 N. First. This will bring them up to a grand total of 224,000 SQFT.

North San Jose office vacancy was 21.5% last quarter, so this expansion should made a positive dent in those figures sometime in the near future.

Source: SVBJ

Strike Brewing Co. Building a Permanent Home Right Here in San Jose!

It has been two years since San Jose's own Strike Brewing Co. launched. They are well known for their IPAs, Reds, and seasonal beers (the Stout is my favorite). While looking for a home, they have been using Hermitage's brewing facilities which is also located in San Jose (7th Street). They could have moved anywhere in Silicon Valley, but they decided to keep their permanent brewery right here in San Jose. You'll be able to visit them at 2099 S. 10th Street after they are fully up and running in March of this year. It sounds like they will have a tasting/tap room, so we have yet another craft beer destination to look forward to!

Paul Mitchell Beaty School Opening Downtown

The California Academy has signed a lease for a 20,000 SQFT standalone building over at 130 Almaden Blvd. in Downtown San Jose's CityView Plaza.. The plan is to build a Paul Mitchell-branded cosmetology school with capacity for 200-250 students and 30 employees. The school is planning to serve around 500 clients and will offer discounted prices on a full line of services such as cuts, colorings, and stylings.

The school is hoping to move in by April 2014, filling yet another vacant Downtown space.

Source: SVBJ

Levi's Stadium Aerial View

Here is a view of the 49ers Stadium circa early December courtesy of someone's personal drone. Since this was taken the seats have all been put in, the lighting is just about done, and the massive scoreboard is functional.

Source: Usedmedia from the Santa Clara County Development Forum

2014 is Going to be an Epic Year for San Jose!

Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was a great year for San Jose and I think 2014 is going to be even better. Just a little warning, this is going to be a very long post.  First off, what do we have to look forward to in 2014:

• The 49ers Stadium - Not only will San Joseans have easy access to a world-class facility, but it will bring some big dollars into our economy. San Jose stands to gain as much as Santa Clara with this new project, and it may also lead to an inflection point with VTA Light Rail. You also have to love that the first major event there will be a San Jose Earthquakes game.
• 10 New Cranes in the Air Downtown - The development boom in Downtown San Jose has just begun. While we already have cranes up for One South and Centerra, expect to see a sky filled with them by the end of 2014.
• Major Events at the San Jose Convention Center - The remodeled convention center looks fantastic. The 2014 Silicon Valley International Auto Show will be the first event to take full advantage of the new space, and I'll look forward to many more events that use the new space.
• More Great Restaurants - In 2013 we saw a huge list of significant openings Downtown: SP2, Cafe Stritch, Orchestria Palm Court, The Farmer's Union, Blackbird Tavern, Nemea, Ike's Vyne, Konjoe, Bray, Bel Bacio, and Whispers. Expect the trend to continue in 2014. I'm especially looking forward to ISO: Beers, Da Kine Grill, CREAM, and of course the SoFA Market.
• More international flights at SJC - We got Tokyo in 2013 and I have a feeling we will land at least one other major international route in 2014.
• Construction on Transit Projects - Both BART and BRT construction will be in full swing this year. Even though those systems will not be operational in 2014, it will be 
• Seeing North First, Midtown, and Japantown Develop - These are the three areas of San Jose that are seeing major urbanization outside of Downtown. In 2014 North First will get millions of additional SQFT in office space, thousands of new homes, and improvements to Light Rail. Midtown will start seeing some new residential projects and retail as will Japantown.
• The Completion of Santana Row - The last major development projects to complete the original vision for Santana Row should be in place or nearing completion by the end of this year. 

Last year I also took the liberty of making a few 2013 predictions. Let's see how I did:

1.) More than two high-rise buildings will break ground in Downtown San Jose. We know about the Carlyle and One South Market, but I think we will see at least one more. Close, but no cigar. Those two projects did break ground but we will not get the 3rd "high-rise" project until 2014. Many people thought these two would not happen, so I still consider this an overall success.

2.) A major transportation project will be greenlit: be it a BRT line, a Lightrail Expansion, or funding for the subway portion of the BART expansion to San Jose. The number of transit riders and bicyclists will rise. Yes. BRT moving forward.

3.) San Jose will have a stronger brand and identity by the end of the year. Many new cultural and art projects will happen Downtown, helping San Jose feel and look like the Capital of Silicon Valley. I think as a brand there was movement in the right direction, especially with Downtown. Most of the art projects were pushed back, but we will see them in 2014 (underpass illumination, high-rise lighting, etc.)

4.) The Sharks will be back with a vengeance for the 2013-2014 Season. Yes. They are doing quite well ;)

5.) Downtown San Jose Office Vacancies will fall below 10%. Not even close, we are still around 20% but did score some big wins over the year.

6.) The number of restaurants in Downtown San Jose will break 250 for the first time in history. Oh, so so close... @248.

7.) We still have no decision on the A's stadium. However, you can expect a decision in 2014 before Bud Selig retires. This one will depend on how you look at it. Was there an official permanent decision on the A's or just that specific proposal? Still a bit grey here.

8.) San Jose will continue to dominate national rankings in salaries and quality of life. Yes, I think we nailed this one.

9.) We will maintain our status as the safest US city with over 500,000 residents. Yes, believe it or not. In terms of murders and violent crimes we were still far and away the safest city above 500,000 residents in the US.

10.) The Golden Triangle and North First Street developments will accelerate, and we will attract at least one massive tech company to relocate to San Jose to compliment what is the largest cluster of tech companies in the world by a huge margin. Yes, millions of SQFT in planned new developments... several major tech companies moved their HQs to San Jose and we will see a Fortune 100 company move into a million SQFT of North San Jose space in 2014.

Okay one last section here.

Now for some items related to The San Jose Blog. As some of you may have noticed, there was a slight
redesign to the layout of the site. The main panel is now much wider, allowing us to post substantially larger photos and videos. There is also a new ad-block on the right, which I tried to make as subtle as possible. I hope it is not too annoying, but if it is feel free to email me about it (josh@thesanjoseblog.com). Also, for 2014, you will likely see several more days with two posts instead of one. There is so much going on that it is difficult not to get behind with only one post per day.

That's a wrap, hope you all have an amazing first day of 2014!

From Lastlightbender's Instagram Page