Construction Starting on 554-Unit North San Jose Apartment Project

The Golden Triangle is the area bound by Highways 101, 237, and 880. It is the largest tech cluster in the world and where you'll find most of San Jose's high-paying jobs. In recent years, several dense housing projects have sprung up right in the middle of the triangle and the trend is continuing.

Equity Residential has just wrapped up the Domain apartment project, a 444-unit, $155 million project right across the street from the @First shopping center. Domain has the distinction of being the largest modular construction project in the area. The apartments were prefabbed and then assembled like lego pieces, which explains how the building went up so quickly.

Now Equity is about to break ground on Tasman Apartments, an even larger development across the street from Domain. This one will clock in at 554-units and cost $215 million to build. It looks like the bulk of the building will be a respectable six-stories.

The amenities list is quite long: roof deck (love these), pool, spa, fitness center, bike-repair shop, BBQ center, clubhouse, and a game lounge. Equity is even throwing in two parks: the five-acre Domain Park and a one-acre park at Tasman Apartments in 2015.

The location I would say is ideal. Not only is it close to jobs, but Light Rail is nearby, @First is across the street, it has easy access to Highway 237, and the new Stadium (plus related projects) are 5 minutes away. The only thing I would have liked to see is some retail on the ground floor of these buildings. All in all, this should be a solid addition to the area.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose Chick-fil-A Awarded LEED Silver

The first Chick-fil-A in Silicon Valley has also become the first restaurant in San Jose to achieve a LEED Silver Certification (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design). Located at 53 Headquarters Dr. in the @First shopping center, the restaurant opened in 2012 to the longest lines I have ever seen for any restaurant opening.

This Chick-fil-A includes water and energy efficiency features as well as air quality control and waste diversion efforts. I'm sure it helped that they were able to build the restaurant from the ground up instead of having to convert an existing space for their needs. They also received LEED points for being easily accessible via VTA buses and Light Rail.

Congrats to this Chick-fil-A and hopefully we'll see many more LEED certified restaurants in San Jose in the near future.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro Ranked as #2 Top Performing Rental Market in the Country

We all know how expensive it already is to live in Silicon Valley today, but it looks like rents are continuing to climb. In 2013, the national average for apartment rent rose 5.1% to $1,093 per month. The list of metros across the country where rents appreciated the most was entirely dominated by the Bay Area. In fact, the region took the top 3 spots in the list, with San Jose coming in second:

• Santa Rosa Metro: 12.2% growth (average rent of $1,438)
• San Jose Metro: 10.1% growth (average rent of $2,153)
• San Francisco Metro: 9.8% growth (average rent of $2,044)

With the local economy and job market continuing to heat up and the demand for housing outpacing supply, we may see similar rent increases for 2014.

Source: SVBJ

Google Fiber Considering Deployment in San Jose!

Google has just announced several new cities that are candidates for Fiber internet deployment, and guess what... San Jose is on the list! While Comcast and AT&T Uverse internet speeds average 15-30 Mbps, Google Fiber can hit a staggering 1,000 Mbps with future plans to go up to 10,000 Mbps. The difference is night and day. Imagine no load times for any page on the web and the ability to stream 4K (Ultra HD) video to every room in your house simultaneously. The best part is that all this performance does not come at a premium. Google's prices are competitive with what we pay today for average speeds.

Internet is becoming an absolute infrastructure necessity like electricity, water, and a sever system. As far as internet providers go, Google Fiber is the best option in the US. If we can bring this to San Jose, then it will be a huge competitive advantage over other cities--both for companies wanting to locate here and residents wanting to live here. Hopefully the city council will do whatever it takes to make this a reality. How can you help? Email you Councilmember and let them know we need this!

Reminder: Art & Food mixer at First to Market tomorrow night! 2/21

Don't forget!

Tomorrow, Friday, February 21st I'm hosting a special mixer at the new restaurant First to Market in the SoFA District.

First to Market is an American comfort food restaurant featuring a seasonal menu. Run by local owners, Joe Gradillas and Jennifer Lin, the restaurant will provide downtown San Jose with signature dishes from Chef Domingo Wolbert such as Bison Tartare, Shrimp and Grits, and Housemade Tots to name just a few.

I have had the honor of being their first local artist to showcase my photography on their artist wall! You'll see several San Jose/South Bay people and places. 

(If you'd like to read more about the restaurant and event, here's the original blog post!)

Please stop by, anytime between 5pm and 9pm, to check out the newly decorated restaurant, check out my photography, and of course, get a chance to taste some of their yummy dishes!

For this event, they will have a special menu of passed appetizers. Here is a sneak peek to get your tummy growling:

I've been informed there might be one or two additional items not mentioned on this list. I can't wait to taste them all. I've been saving my taste buds for Friday's event.

We hope to see you there!

Where: First to Market

Date: Friday, February 21st 

Time: 5pm to 9pm
Address: 399 S 1st Street, San Jose

HGST Expanding Historic South San Jose Campus

Nathan Donato-Weinstein from the Silicon Valley Business Journal nabbed an exclusive on the HGST expansion. This historic campus in South San Jose was birthed by IBM in 1956 and was the location where the "flying disk drive" was invented. Now owned by Western Digital, HGST is going to demolish about a million SQFT of outdated space, rehab the remaining structures, and build two new modern buildings. One will be a 15,000 SQFT R&D space while the other will be a 185,000 SQFT office building.

The new buildings will be relatively tall for these types of campuses. The office building will rise up to six stories and the R&D space will probably be four. The architect says there is interest in doing more than "just retaining a manufacturing-style, low-rise model." It sounds like they want to enhance the aesthetics of the overall neighborhood, which is a nice change of pace for these types of projects. I'll look forward to the first set of renders.

Next to the HGST campus, several housing projects are under construction with hundreds (if not thousands) of homes. A new retail center anchored by Target is also in the works, and the area does have access to both Light Rail and Caltrain.

Source: SVBJ

Wednesday Wishlist: Vertical Gardens

As a green-tech leader, San Jose needs to up its game when it comes to building designs. Below are photos of Clearpoint Tower in Sri Lanka, which will be the world's tallest vertical garden. It has 164 apartments across 46 floors and every units is wrapped in plants which buffer sound, heat, and help clean the air. The garden is watered using an automatic drip irrigation system and other green elements such as solar panels and natural ventilation are also incorporated into the design.

A project like this would be ideal in areas that have few tall buildings in the immediate area... such as the suburbs. It would blend into areas not used to density much nicer than a steel or glass tower. I could see projects like this replacing strip malls near public transit in East/South San Jose.

Source: Inhabitat

Hoopla Raises $8M, Plans to Expand Downtown San Jose Office!

Another hot startup is expanding in San Jose. Hoopla is a cloud-based gamification solution for motivating sales teams. Basically, they improve sales by throwing an element of fun and competition into the selling process. Gamification is a super hot space right now and Hoopla has grown by 250% last year alone, adding over 150 customers.

By raising $8M in a Series B round, they will be able to double their 25 person company by the end of the year. This also means quadrupling their space in Downtown San Jose. They are currently headquartered at 84 West Santa Clara, Suite 750--right across the street from the new One South tower.

For more information, have a look at the full release below or visit Hoopla's website.

Hoopla Raises $8 Million to Meet Demand for Sales Motivation Software

Series B Round Led by Trinity Ventures to Fund SaaS Company’s Rapid Growth

SAN JOSE, Calif., February 13, 2014—Hoopla, an award-winning provider of sales motivation software, today announced $8 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Trinity Ventures, with participation from previous investors Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE), Illuminate Ventures and additional private investors. Larry Orr, general partner at Trinity, will join Hoopla’s board of directors.

Founded in 2010, Hoopla’s cloud-based Sales Motivation Platform combines modern gamification techniques with powerful data insights designed to motivate and track   sales team performance. The product’s highly engaging, animated updates are broadcast live on big-screen TVs and web pages throughout the enterprise. A mobile version will be available later this spring.

“The world of sales is changing dramatically,” said Michael Smalls, founder and CEO of Hoopla. “New business models and technologies are changing how and where we sell, and a new generation of employees is bringing a different set of ideas and expectations to the workplace. Our customers recognize this shift, and are using Hoopla to build engaged, high-energy teams that are reporting gains of 50 percent or more in their key performance metrics.”

Hoopla’s software as a service (SaaS) solution targets the 15 million sales and other business professionals worldwide who use customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and want to improve the productivity and performance of their teams. The company grew over 250 percent in 2013, adding over 150 new customers, including well-known brands such as Act-On Software, Castlight Health, Forrester Research, GM Financial, and The Sacramento Kings.

“There is a select group of software technologies that are redefining how sales organizations connect, communicate and drive performance,” said Mr. Orr. “Hoopla is a leader in this market, and is rapidly establishing itself as the must-have motivation platform for world-class sales organizations.”

Hoopla will use its new funding to expand sales, marketing and product development efforts to meet the rapidly growing demand for its software. The company is hiring aggressively and expects to double its employee base by the end of 2014.

About Hoopla®

Hoopla provides cloud-based software that helps sales organizations inspire and motivate sales team performance. Using Hoopla’s award-winning Sales Motivation Platform, industry leaders like Angie’s List, Box, Experian, Glassdoor, Marketo, Trulia, Xactly and Zillow are building high-performance cultures that deliver dramatic gains in sales productivity and customer satisfaction. Learn more at hoopla.net, on Facebook at facebook.com/hoopla, and on Twitter at @hooplasoftware.

About Trinity Ventures

Trinity Ventures is a top-tier venture capital firm combining business insight, practical expertise and a personal touch to help start-ups win big. For over eleven funds, Trinity has helped passionate entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas transform markets and lives. Trinity's investment team takes a collaborative approach and believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment to deliver out-sized returns to entrepreneurs and investors. The firm invests in early stage technology companies with emphases on Cloud, Digital Media, Social Commerce and Entertainment, and Software as a Service.