Saturday, October 3, 2015
Hard Steel MMA Fight in Willow Glen
Willow Glen would probably be the last place I'd expect to find a mixed martial arts tournament, but that is exactly what is going down tonight. About two dozen fighters will be competing in the Hard Steel Amateur Fight Series. The event is located at the Willow Glen Lounge (444 W. Alma Ave.) and doors open at 5pm. Tickets range from $35 for general admission to $70 front-row seats. For more details, please head over here.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Scott's Seafood Downtown Resident Mixer
On October 15th, Scott's Seafood is hosting a Downtown San Jose resident mixer out on their slick rooftop patio. The event is actually open to anyone that enjoys hanging out Downtown, not just residents. Scott's will be providing complimentary food off their late-night menu and a free cocktail if you RSVP. The event will run from 9pm to midnight and I'm sure will be a blast.
To RSVP (it's free), click here.
To RSVP (it's free), click here.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Apple Buys More Land in North San Jose!
It looks like Apple is planning something huge in North San Jose. Last week they purchased another 27 acres in North San Jose off of Carcot Avenue. This is a high visibility site fronting Highway 101 (imagine the signage possibilities).
Apple paid Ellis Partners $166 million for the land, which includes a 290,000 SQFT building that Apple was previously going to lease. The deal also gives Apple 12 acres of land approved for 650,000 SQFT of additional R&D and/or office space. This will give Apple a grand total of 70 acres in North San Jose.
Without moving a single employee to San Jose, the city already is already getting a nice payout. The city will collect over $1 million in transfer tax from the sale of the property.
In typical Apple fashion, they are being very secretive on what their true intentions are for the land. My guess is that they are going to use the space to develop "Project Titan," their electric car rumored for release in 2019. They allegedly already have 800 employees working on the car, and plan to triple that to over 2,000 employees immediately. North San Jose property would be the absolute best location for Apple to develop an electric car. Here is why:
Tesla now has 12,000 employees. If Apple chooses to centralize "Project Titan" in San Jose, they will need every square foot of the land they just purchased. I can't wait to see how this develops!
Source: SVBJ
Apple paid Ellis Partners $166 million for the land, which includes a 290,000 SQFT building that Apple was previously going to lease. The deal also gives Apple 12 acres of land approved for 650,000 SQFT of additional R&D and/or office space. This will give Apple a grand total of 70 acres in North San Jose.
Without moving a single employee to San Jose, the city already is already getting a nice payout. The city will collect over $1 million in transfer tax from the sale of the property.
In typical Apple fashion, they are being very secretive on what their true intentions are for the land. My guess is that they are going to use the space to develop "Project Titan," their electric car rumored for release in 2019. They allegedly already have 800 employees working on the car, and plan to triple that to over 2,000 employees immediately. North San Jose property would be the absolute best location for Apple to develop an electric car. Here is why:
- Millions of square feet of develop-able space that could be built to meet Apple's unique requirements. Cupertino is out of land and is more difficult to work with than San Jose when it comes to new development.
- Access to the best engineering talent in the world. The Golden Triangle is still the largest tech cluster anywhere, and you are not going to find better hardware engineers elsewhere.
- Santa Clara County is becoming a Mecca for automotive innovation. You have Tesla and innovation centers for just about every car manufacturer in the immediate area. Let's also not forget NextEV is opening an R&D outpost in the neighborhood. Most of the talent required to build next-generation vehicles is already here.
- Easy access to the San Jose International Airport.
- Easy access to Light Rail and eventually BART.
- Easy access to Highway 101 and Highway 87.
- More central location than Cupertino with more housing options and urban amenities.
Tesla now has 12,000 employees. If Apple chooses to centralize "Project Titan" in San Jose, they will need every square foot of the land they just purchased. I can't wait to see how this develops!
Source: SVBJ
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Samsung's New San Jose Headquarters is Complete!
Last week Samsung officially unveiled their new 1.1 million SQFT North American Headquarters in San Jose. The ten story main building (technically two connected towers) is state-of-the-art. Each floor is no more than one staircase away from expansive outdoor gardens, the floor plates are huge, ceilings are high on every floor, and the campus has every amenity you can think of (yes, that is a putting green in the sky photographed below). 700 employees have already moved in, but the building will accommodate up to 2,000 workers.
Check out some of the best photos I have found of the new campus below.
Source: CNET
Check out some of the best photos I have found of the new campus below.
Source: CNET
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Curry Up Now and Mortar & Pestle Now Open in North San Jose!
Finally, San Jose has gotten a Curry Up Now brick & mortar restaurant! Curry Up Now has been one of my favorite food trucks for years and I was elated when they built their first restaurant near my work in San Mateo. They went on to open two additional restaurants in San Francisco and Palo Alto, but have saved the best for San Jose.
Ideally situated in the Golden Triangle, San Jose's Curry Up Now is the largest with 160 seats. Of course it offers all of their favorites such as their famous Tikka Masala Burritos, Sexy Fries, Deconstructed Samosas, and Naughty Naan--however, there will be some new items exclusive to San Jose. The San Jose location will be the only one to offer Brunch, and they created an assortment of specialties for the occasion like the Bird's Nest Samosa (photo below) and Indian-style crepes.
It gets better. The San Jose location also has a Mortar & Pestle, their Indian-themed craft cocktail bar. The only other one that exists is in San Mateo, and it's my favorite bar on the Peninsula. The drinks are designed to be paired with spicy Indian dishes and have unique flavors I have not had at any other bar before. The drinks are outstanding and are worth a trip in and of themselves.
Curry up Now is located at 3250 Zanker Road, near Patxi's and Wahoo's. The restaurant is open 11am-10pm Monday through Thursday, 11am-11pm on Friday, 9am to 11pm on Saturday, and 9am-9pm on Sunday.
Source: Eat - Drink - Play
Ideally situated in the Golden Triangle, San Jose's Curry Up Now is the largest with 160 seats. Of course it offers all of their favorites such as their famous Tikka Masala Burritos, Sexy Fries, Deconstructed Samosas, and Naughty Naan--however, there will be some new items exclusive to San Jose. The San Jose location will be the only one to offer Brunch, and they created an assortment of specialties for the occasion like the Bird's Nest Samosa (photo below) and Indian-style crepes.
It gets better. The San Jose location also has a Mortar & Pestle, their Indian-themed craft cocktail bar. The only other one that exists is in San Mateo, and it's my favorite bar on the Peninsula. The drinks are designed to be paired with spicy Indian dishes and have unique flavors I have not had at any other bar before. The drinks are outstanding and are worth a trip in and of themselves.
Curry up Now is located at 3250 Zanker Road, near Patxi's and Wahoo's. The restaurant is open 11am-10pm Monday through Thursday, 11am-11pm on Friday, 9am to 11pm on Saturday, and 9am-9pm on Sunday.
Source: Eat - Drink - Play
Monday, September 28, 2015
New Tech Campus Coming to Downtown San Jose!!!
Downtown San Jose is growing by leaps and bounds when it comes to residential development and retail, but has not been getting a lot of love from commercial developers. That is going to change with a very exciting project on Santa Clara street near Diridon station and the SAP Center.
Trammel Crow is a developer that acquired an 8.5 acre plot of land from Adobe for $58.5 million. Adobe was planning to build an expansion of their headquarters in this area, but instead reconfigured their existing three towers to support a larger number of employees (no more private offices for every employee). I think it was actually for the better. While I'm a huge fan of Adobe and believe they play a vital role Downtown, if they were to build out their expansion it would likely not have been very inclusive to the whole community. Trammel Crow on the other hand is planning the exact opposite.
I'm going to start with the quote from the developer that Nathan ended his SVBJ article with:
"We’ve committed ourselves to making it iconic," he said. "We think it will be a landmark in the South Bay."
Iconic sounds right. Trammel Crow want to build 800,000 SQFT of office space across two buildings 10-12 stories tall. This would be a 10% expansion of all the office space currently in Downtown San Jose today and the first major office project to break ground since 2010. 400,000 SQFT of the project would be built speculatively without requiring a signed tenant. This would also be Class A++ premium office space with huge 40,000 SQFT floor plates and soaring ceilings popular with tech companies.
There would be 325 apartment units in a separate nine-story building. The whole site would be sprinkled with shops and restaurants and even feature a large public plaza along West Santa Clara Street. The beautiful and historic San Jose Water Company building would be renovated and repurposed. 2,400 parking spaces would be built to support the whole project, mostly underground... but hopefully most people won't be driving here.
A big attraction to this spot for the developer is the access to transit at Diridon Station. They are even tentatively calling the project #Diridon. With Caltrain, Light Rail, Capital Corridor, ACE, and a VTA bus hub, this is already one of the most important transit hubs in California. In the future Diridon will also be getting multiple Bus Rapid Transit lines, BART, and California High-Speed Rail. Even the $2 billion Transbay Terminal will not be as well connected as Diridon.
Trammel is expecting to get their building permits in Q1 2016, start construction in the summer, and have the first office building ready for occupancy by the end of 2017. The apartments are slated for 2018. They are also promising a signature look that will make the project a South Bay landmark. I cant's wait to see the first drawings for this!
Source: SVBJ, Hat tip to Josh Russell for sending this in!
Trammel Crow is a developer that acquired an 8.5 acre plot of land from Adobe for $58.5 million. Adobe was planning to build an expansion of their headquarters in this area, but instead reconfigured their existing three towers to support a larger number of employees (no more private offices for every employee). I think it was actually for the better. While I'm a huge fan of Adobe and believe they play a vital role Downtown, if they were to build out their expansion it would likely not have been very inclusive to the whole community. Trammel Crow on the other hand is planning the exact opposite.
I'm going to start with the quote from the developer that Nathan ended his SVBJ article with:
"We’ve committed ourselves to making it iconic," he said. "We think it will be a landmark in the South Bay."
Iconic sounds right. Trammel Crow want to build 800,000 SQFT of office space across two buildings 10-12 stories tall. This would be a 10% expansion of all the office space currently in Downtown San Jose today and the first major office project to break ground since 2010. 400,000 SQFT of the project would be built speculatively without requiring a signed tenant. This would also be Class A++ premium office space with huge 40,000 SQFT floor plates and soaring ceilings popular with tech companies.
There would be 325 apartment units in a separate nine-story building. The whole site would be sprinkled with shops and restaurants and even feature a large public plaza along West Santa Clara Street. The beautiful and historic San Jose Water Company building would be renovated and repurposed. 2,400 parking spaces would be built to support the whole project, mostly underground... but hopefully most people won't be driving here.
A big attraction to this spot for the developer is the access to transit at Diridon Station. They are even tentatively calling the project #Diridon. With Caltrain, Light Rail, Capital Corridor, ACE, and a VTA bus hub, this is already one of the most important transit hubs in California. In the future Diridon will also be getting multiple Bus Rapid Transit lines, BART, and California High-Speed Rail. Even the $2 billion Transbay Terminal will not be as well connected as Diridon.
Trammel is expecting to get their building permits in Q1 2016, start construction in the summer, and have the first office building ready for occupancy by the end of 2017. The apartments are slated for 2018. They are also promising a signature look that will make the project a South Bay landmark. I cant's wait to see the first drawings for this!
Source: SVBJ, Hat tip to Josh Russell for sending this in!
Sunday, September 27, 2015
San Jose's Velostrata Raises $14M
Velostrata is a tech company that enables network admins to easily move virtual machines on their network into the cloud. Their software runs on top of VMware, and makes moving servers into the cloud as easy as right-clicking.
The San Jose company--which is headquartered at 2880 Zanker Road--has operated in stealth mode for over a year and is just now announcing a $14 million funding round. This goes to show that San Jose has tech startups as well, not just established companies.
Velostrata has a total of 25 employees, with plans to grow to 40 within a year. They also have an office in Tel Aviv.
Source: VentureBeat
The San Jose company--which is headquartered at 2880 Zanker Road--has operated in stealth mode for over a year and is just now announcing a $14 million funding round. This goes to show that San Jose has tech startups as well, not just established companies.
Velostrata has a total of 25 employees, with plans to grow to 40 within a year. They also have an office in Tel Aviv.
Source: VentureBeat
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Camera 12 Cinemas Getting 3-Screen Barco Escape Technology
Barco Escape is an immersive movie experience that uses three separate screens to wrap a film around the audience. It was used to highlight a few a few shorts during the last Cinequest Film Festival, but is now making its way into the mainstream.
Last week, Camera 12 was one of only 20 theaters in the country to use the technology for a full-length film: Maze Runner 2: The Scorch Trials. During the movie there are almost 23 minutes of footage that make full use of all three screens. The rest of the time, the screens are used for effects that help keep the audience immersed (such as dust storms). Camera 12 is the only theater in Silicon Valley with Barco Escape. You can get your tickets to see the film over here!
The technology will also be featured on two independent films during the 2016 Cinequest Film Festival.
Source: SVBJ
Last week, Camera 12 was one of only 20 theaters in the country to use the technology for a full-length film: Maze Runner 2: The Scorch Trials. During the movie there are almost 23 minutes of footage that make full use of all three screens. The rest of the time, the screens are used for effects that help keep the audience immersed (such as dust storms). Camera 12 is the only theater in Silicon Valley with Barco Escape. You can get your tickets to see the film over here!
The technology will also be featured on two independent films during the 2016 Cinequest Film Festival.
Source: SVBJ
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