Photo of Hart's Department Store

Below is a photo of Hart's Department Store from the 1950s. It was one of the last department stores to shut down, closing its doors for the last time in 1968 after a 102 year history in Downtown San Jose. You can also see the Basilica poking its head in the background of the photo.

Source: cardinal2007 from the San Jose Development Forum

Saturday Stats: Santa Clara County Property Values Hit $409B

A new property valuation record has been established for Santa Clara County. The official gross assessed value for all property in the county is $409 billion. After you take away tax exempt properties such as colleges and churches, the net number becomes $388 billion. This is a 8.67% increase over last year and the largest growth in 10 years.

While it is pretty clear property values are increasing across the board, there are two individual contributors that made a large impact this year. Levi's Stadium was valued at $1.4 billion and Apple's Spaceship Campus was valued at $820 million (even in its current under-construction state).

The increased valuation should mean more revenue for Santa Clara County to provide civic services. Several county projects to address homelessness were attributed to substantially decreasing the homeless population over the last two years. Increased revenue could lead to more funding for projects like those.

Source: SVBJ

KQED's Boomtown - Finally: San Jose Starts to Capitalize on the Tech Boom

KQED has an interesting five minute radio spot on San Jose's relationship with the recent tech boom. They did a good job of presenting both challenges and opportunities, as well as some history. I don't necessarily agree with all of the statements made, but thought it would be interesting to throw it out there and see what everyone here thinks.

Hat tip to Erik Klein for sending this in.

BAM Relocates to Downtown San Jose

Yet another tech company is going to call Downtown San Jose home! BAM Labs is a health monitoring company that captures sleep data for both healthcare providers and consumers. BAM is founded by two Apple alumni (one developed the PowerBook and the other wrote its specs).

The company has moved its headquarters from Campbell to the entire 12th floor 111 W Saint John Street (about 13,000 SQFT). Welcome to the neighborhood!

Source: Bisnow, Hillrise from the San Jose Development Forum

Sourisseau News: St. James Park

Did you ever wonder about the origins of St. James Park? The two minute video below gives the best summary I have seen of the park's nearly 170 year history. It is almost impossible to believe today that St. James Park once looked like the image you see below. On the bright side, a substantial effort is underway to revitalize the park and turn it back into a valued asset for our city.

Anyway, watch the video below!


St James Park from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Downtown San Jose Restaurant List Updates! (2015 Q3 Edition)

I have finally caught up again with updates for the Downtown San Jose Restaurants database! We are up to a grand total of 254 eateries! This is yet another record-breaking number for Downtown San Jose! We were at 206 eateries in 2011.

As always there were some significant closures as well. The ones that stood out to me were Little Chef, Falafel Bar, and Azucar. The good news is that the caliber of the new places opening up more than makes up for the ones that closed. Here are some of the newcomers:

• Noodle Dude - This modern but unpretentious noodle house had some of the best Ramen I've had (Yelpers agree, 4.5 star rating). You order Ramen like you would a burrito at Chipotle--the noodles, ingredients, and broth are all independently selected by the customer, so you get exactly what you're in the mood for. They also have great service.
• Konjoe-Tei - New Ramen and Izakaya joint in the SoFA Market brought to you by the owners of Konjoe. I've heard great things, also 4.5 stars on Yelp.
• On the Flipside - New Burger bar in the SoFA Market.
• Gotta Eatta Pita - Yet another 4.5 star restaurant on Yelp. Very inexpensive yet delicious Mediterranean food.
• The Joint Eatery - Specializes in diverse comfort food, including Burgers, Sandwiches, and a variety of Appetizers. Oh yeah, also 4.5 stars on Yelp.

Below is the change log from the Downtown San Jose Restaurants Database:

1/10/2015	Grub Shack closed
1/24/2015	Icebee Replaced with My Milkshake at 151 S. 2nd Street
1/24/2015	Falafel Bar closed
1/24/2015	Azucar closed
1/25/2015	Pete's Coffee on Santa Clara Street closed
1/25/2015	La Pinata on San Pedro closed
5/2/2015	Added On The Flipside, Konjoe-Tei, Hawaiian Poke Bowl, Milk and Wood, and Vitamina Juices & Blends which are all part of the SoFA Market
5/2/2015	First to Market is now called The Craftsman
7/4/2015	Konjoe-Tei in the SoFA Market is now officially open
7/4/2015	Sama Zama in the SPSM was replaced with Pasta Fresca (same owners)
7/4/2015	Little Chef at the SPSM closed
7/4/2015	Gotta Eatta Pita has replaced Amir Restaurant at 86 N Market Street
7/4/2015	The Joint Eatery is now open at 93 E Santa Clara Street (used to be Grub Shack)

If you haven't bookmarked it yet, here's the link to the spreadsheet! There is also a permanent link over to the right entitled Downtown San Jose Restaurants.

Apple is Setting Up Shop in San Jose!!!

In what will likely be the most talked about San Jose commercial real-estate deal for months, Apple is leasing the 300,000 SQFT 101 Tech campus in North San Jose! This is a two-story building formerly used by Atmel that has huge 150,000 SQFT floor plates that tech companies seem to love these days. The property was substantially renovated with skylights, outdoor amenity space, and a new facade. Next door... 12 acres of land already approved for 665,000 SQFT of new office space. Perhaps Apple will snap that up as well.

It is still unclear which department Apple will choose to locate here. I'm going to speculate a new project, like Apple's future electric cars. The location is pretty close to Tesla and many of the companies that Tesla is sourcing components from (FYI, Tesla is looking at San Jose office space as well). What is clear, is that this will have a huge branding impact on San Jose. Could this be the deal that opens up the floodgates for even more tech companies to invest in San Jose?

Source: SVBJ

The Lincoln Law School Building Downtown is Going Residential

The office market has been slow to recover Downtown despite the explosion in residential (and soon retail) development. It looks like at least one property owner has grown tired of waiting for the market to fully rebound. There is a proposal on the table to transform the 82,000 SQFT building that houses the Lincoln Law School at 1 N. First Street into a residential project.

The dated, and dare I say ugly, facade would be transformed into something much more modern. The rendering below reminds me of The Pierce in SoFA. The project would result in 72 residential units across the five floors and 7,500 SQFT of retail on the ground floor. The fifth floor would be added on top of the existing building and there would even be some units tucked into the basement. Those underground units won't be as bad as they sound since an atrium will funnel natural light to them.

However, one big question mark is whether it is even worth remodeling the building on such a key corner, or would it make more sense to tear the whole thing down and build a high-rise project in its place. Many people would like to see a Class A office building here, especially with the proximity to the future Downtown San Jose BART station.

If the project does get approved by the city, construction will take less than a year. As for the Lincoln Law School, don't worry--it is already being relocated to another Downtown building at 384 S. Second Street.

Source: SVBJ, Hat tip to Drew S. for sending this in.