El Camino Real Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Below is a short video the VTA put together for the El Camino Real BRT project. Note that BRT is going to be branded as "Breeze" and is closer to Light Rail than bus service. There will be limited stops, partial dedicated lanes, and comfortable stations almost identical to Light Rail. The El Camino Real BRT line will start in Downtown San Jose and go all the way up to Palo Alto. For more info, have a look at the BRT Webpage.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro Tech Salaries Top San Francisco

Average salaries for the tech industry have risen meteorically over the last year. The average compensation for a tech worker in San Francisco is now $156,518. What could be crazier than that? Well, the average compensation in the San Jose Metro is $196,000!

Before your head explodes at that figure, note this is average compensation not median compensation. Execs wearing hoodies made of platinum thread and unicorn leather are factored into the formula. Speaking of hoodies, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg's $3.3 billion in stock options the average compensation for the mid-Peninsula is $291,497.

Source: SVBJ

14th Annual Antique Autos in History Park

This Sunday, History San Jose is hosting the largest Antique Auto Show on the West Coast! There will be over 200 antique autos, fire equipment, bikes, and more. For all of the details, just have a look at the brochure below.

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