Hotel De Anza is Getting a $5 Million Upgrade!

The historic (and awesomely Art Deco) Hotel De Anza is about to get a serious upgrade from its new owner, Lowe Enterprises. Being 84 years old, it has quite a storied past. It was one of the first luxury hotels in San Jose, hosting such guests as Eleanor Roosevelt, The DuPonts, Jack Dempsey, and Fred MacMurray. Then it fell into disrepair and was almost torn down in the 70's. Luckily, the late San Jose Redevelopment Agency saved the building and restored it. The Hotel De Anza as we know it today was re-opened in 1990, just in time to compliment the new San Jose Arena.

Now that over 20 years have gone by since the latest major renovation and the Downtown hotel market is doing very well, the timing is perfect for a major overhaul that will keep and perhaps even enhance its historic character. Lowe Enterprises is going to spend $35,000 on each room, which will include a full redesign of the rooms with modern bathrooms, new beds, new furniture, and newer tech/amenities. Another $1.5 million will go into upgrading common areas and other parts of the hotel.

In addition, Lowe is considering improving the food program and may even add another eatery on the ground floor that would be open to the street. I'm assuming this would be something more casual since they already have La Pastaia.

I consider this great news all around. This is one of my favorite buildings Downtown and it deserves a decent upgrade. Soon there will also be an AC Hotels building across the street, giving San Jose visitors a choice between both vintage and modern luxury on Santa Clara.

Source: SVBJ

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.