SoFA Street Fair this Sunday!

The SoFA Street Fair is a free, all-ages music and art festival on September 14th. Three outdoor stages and multiple indoor stages will be setup throughout SoFA with dozens of performances from noon to night. You can see the musical schedule below. For more information click here or here.

A10 Networks Expanding in North San Jose

A10 Networks is an enterprise networking company that improves performance and security for data centers. A10 is growing very quickly and even had an IPO earlier this year. Currently they are located at 3 W Plumeria Drive in an 80,000 SQFT office campus that they acquired in 2011.

Hungry for more space, A10 is looking to lease 101 Tech in North San Jose--the former home of Atmel. The new space clocks in at an impressive 291,000 SQFT, making this one of the largest deals of the year in the area. Hopefully this will help move along some of the speculative projects in North San Jose like N1, Boston Properties, and the Peery-Arrillaga project.

Source: SVBJ

Centennial Gateway Renders!

Across the street from Levi's Stadium is going to be one of the most epic development projects in the history of the Bay Area. Below are a couple recent renders of Phase 1 of that project called Centennial Gateway. This will include 120,000 SQFT of retail, 600,000 SQFT of office, a boutique hotel, and a plaza. This could be ready as soon as 2016 (but likely later). The crazy thing is, this isn't even the big project that is being planned for the area.

Retail West is leading the retail strategy for the project and they are calling this "more contemporary, lively, and modern than anything the Bay Area has ever seen." Big words--will be very interesting to see how this turns out.

On a separate note, I had the chance to dine at the new Michael Mina restaurant in the stadium, Bourbon Steak, and it was phenomenal. I'll have a full review next week.

Sourisseau News: College of Notre Dame

Did you know that the College of Notre Dame in Belmont was originally in Downtown San Jose? They had quite an impressive looking campus located at Notre Dame Avenue by San Pedro Square. Check out the two minute video below for some great local history!


College of Notre Dame from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Potential Fountain Alley Project Back on the Table

One of the highest-potential areas for development in Downtown San Jose is known as Fountain Alley. This is huge chunk of a city block facing Second St. (the Improv) that is currently being used as a parking lot primarily serving Bella Mia, Original Gravity, Paper Plain, Nemea, and several smaller shops on First Street.

In the past, this has been the site of several failed development proposals. CIM was looking at this for a major redevelopment project along with the current site of The 88, then Barry Swenson Builder proposed a 16-story mixed-use project back in 2006. The timing never seemed to be right.

Now that the Downtown market is getting serious traction, LaSalle Investment Management is talking to the city about different possibilities for this site. The most exciting scenario is a 24-story residential tower with hundreds of residential units and 25,000 SQFT of retail space (hell yes!). This is a killer infill location at the center of Downtown with immediate access to Light Rail and every amenity you could think of within a three block radius. I really hope this site gets maximum density. Hit the source link for all the details.

Source: SVBJ

Jabil Leasing 100,000 SQFT in Edenvale

Jabil provides manufacturing services for high tech companies in the valley with an emphasis on emerging technologies. They are planning to expand in a big way by leasing a whole 100,000 SQFT building in South San Jose at 6375 San Ignacio Avenue. This is right around the corner from Jabil's current 180,000 SQFT facility.

This is great news for South San Jose, where office vacancies have been increasing for the past three quarters and are currently at 22.3%. The last quarter was the first where the vacancy rate has actually declined and this will help keep that positive trend going.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose is One of the Best Places in the US to Cool Off Before Summer Ends

There are still a couple weeks of summer left, so here is a fun stat from The SpareFoot Blog. San Jose was ranked as one of the best places in the country to cool off before the Summer ends. Three contributing factors were San Jose's ranking as a top swim city, having one of the highest-rated water parks (Ranging Waters), and being in close proximity to Carlon Falls in Yosemite. You can scroll down to see the full list of cities that made the cut.

Source: The SpareFoot Blog

Los Angeles, CA

Featured On: Top Swim Cities, Best Rooftop Pools (The London, The Standard)
Close Proximity: Raging Waters Waterpark (San Dimas), Santa Monica Beach (Santa Monica)

Honolulu, HI – O’ahu
Featured On: Best Places to Swim (Hanauma Bay), Clearest Waters (Hanauma Bay), Best Beaches (Hanauma Bay), Best Beaches ’14 (Kahanamoku Beach)
Close Proximity: Lanikai Beach (Kailua), Waimanalo Beach Park (Waimanalo), North Shore O’ahu (Haleiwa)

Traverse City, MI
Featured On: Top Water Parks (Great Wolf Lodge)
Close Proximity: Platte River (Empire), Torch Lake (Antrim County)

Havasu Falls – Supai, AZ
Featured On: Best Swimming Holes (II), Secret Swimming Holes
Close Proximity: N/A

Robert H. Treman State Park – Ithaca, NY
Featured On: Beautiful Swimming Holes, Best Swimming Holes, Natural Swimming Holes
Close Proximity: N/A

Las Vegas, NV
Featured On: Best Rooftop Pools (Wet Republic at MGM, Tao Beach, Marquee Daypool)
Close Proximity: N/A

San Jose, CA
Featured On: Top Swim Cities, Top Water Parks (Raging Waters)
Close Proximity: Carlon Falls (Yosemite)

Indianapolis, IN
Featured On: Top Swim Cities
Close Proximity: White Rock Park (St. Paul)

Boston, MA
Featured On: Top Water Parks (Great Wolf Lodge), Best Rooftop Pools (Rooftop @ Revere, The Colonnade)
Close Proximity: N/A

Cummins Falls – Cookeville, TN
Featured On: Best Swimming Holes, Beautiful Swimming Holes, Secret Swimming Holes
Close Proximity: N/A

Austin, TX
Featured On: Top Swim Cities, Gorgeous Public Pools (Barton Springs), Best Rooftop Pools (Rio)
Close Proximity: Blue Hole (Wimberley), Krause Springs (Spicewood), Jacob’s Well (Hays County), Hamilton Pool (Travis County), Schlitterbahn Waterpark (New Braunfels)

Miami, FL
Featured On: Gorgeous Public Pools (Coral Gables Venetian Pool), Beautiful Beaches (South Beach)
Close Proximity: Cape Florida State Park (Key Biscayne)

St. Petersburg, FL
Featured On: Best Beaches (St. Pete Beach)
Close Proximity: Clearwater Beach (Clearwater), Siesta Beach (Siesta Key)

Cape Cod, MA
Featured On: Best Beaches ’14 (Coast Guard Beach)
Close Proximity: Moshup Beach (Martha’s Vineyard), Surfside Beach (Nantucket)

Orlando, FL
Featured On: Top Water Parks (Aquatica, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, Disney’s Blizzard Beach)
Close Proximity: N/A

Hana, HI – Maui
Featured On: Secret Swimming Holes (Pools at Ohe’o), Best Beaches (Wai’anapanapa State Park), Best Beaches ’14 (Hamoa Beach)
Close Proximity: Ka’anapali Beach (Lahaina), Wailea Beach (Kihei), Makena Beach State Park (Makena)

Johnson’s Shut-Ins – Montgomery County, MO
Featured On: Best Swimming Holes (III), Beautiful Swimming Holes, Secret Swimming Holes
Close Proximity: N/A

Sliding Rock – Brevard, NC
Featured On: Best Swimming Holes (II), Secret Swimming Holes (II), Natural Swimming Holes
Close Proximity: N/A

Scott's Seafood Rooftop Wine Pairing Dinner featuring Silver Oak and Twomey Winery (Sep 18th)

Has anyone been to Scott's Seafood lately? This is the second highest eatery Downtown (second only to the Capital Club) since it is situated one top of a six story parking structure. Last year they commandeered a few neighboring parking spots and built an awesome patio up there with a fantastic view of Downtown and the greater Silicon Valley area.

On September 18th, Scott's is hosting a rooftop wine pairing dinner with Silver Oak and Twomey winery. The menu consists of four courses and five wine pairings, all while soaking in the view. For more information, keep scrolling down or click here to get your tickets.

San Jose, CA - Scott’s Seafood San Jose is proud to present a rooftop wine pairing dinner featuring Silver Oak and Twomey winery on September 18th, 2014 at 6pm on Scott’s Seafood rooftop patio. Scott’s Seafood is located on the sixth floor of the Civic Center Plaza at 185 Park Ave in Downtown San Jose. Cost for this dinner will be $80 dollars per person.

Chef Alfonso Tomayo has created a very special menu for this four-course beer dinner that will compliment Silver Oak and Twomey award winning wines. Guest will also be able to learn more about Silver Oak and Twomey from staff of the winery. Scott’s Seafood San Jose has selected five different wines to pair with this special menu. This menu will include the following courses:

• First Course: Artisan cheeses, Fruit and Smoked Salmon. Paired with Twomey Sauvignon Blanc
• Second Course: Roasted Beet Salad. Paired with Twomey Pinot Noir.
• Third Course Filet Mignon and Ahi Tuna. Paired with Silver Oak Alexander Valley and Napa Valley Cabernets.
• Fourth Course: Poached Pear. Paired with Twomey Merlot.

Scott’s Seafood San Jose is a Bay Area tradition in Downtown San Jose since 1986. Scott’s Seafood features American regional cuisine, the freshest seafood, pasta, chicken dishes, and USDA prime aged steaks.

Tickets are available through the following link http://goo.gl/IJ7wu5. This dinner is due to sell out and space is limited. For more information please call 408-971-1700.