Chacho's Taco Festival is this Saturday

The second annual Chacho's Taco Festival is going to bring a ton of tacos, live music, and good times to St. James Park this weekend. Part of the festivities include the only MLE (Major League Eating) sanctioned taco eating contest in Northern California. In 2014 Matt Stoney won the inaugural competition by eating 101 tacos in 8 minutes (!!!).

The event runs from 11am to 8pm. Admission is $10 and parking is available at 64 N. Market St. and San Pedro Square. For more information head over to the Taco Festival website over here.

Uproar Brewing Company Hopes to Open by the End of the Year

I thought I'd pop in to provide a quick update on Uproar Brewing Company. I recently visited the brewery to check out the progress on their buildout and to find out when they might be looking to open.

Though there weren't any specific opening dates mentioned, they were all hopeful that they would be able to open by the end of the year.

It was evident inside the building that a lot of construction has taken place, and it was great to see that most of the brewery equipment had already arrived.

I wrote a quick post about the visit - with a bunch of pictures - over at my local beer site at gratefulhubby.com.

Prost! Gunbae! Cheers!

JetSuiteX launching twice daily service from SJC to Burbank

The week would not feel right without at least one post about a new SJC route. Currently JetSuiteX's only San Jose route is to Bozeman, Montana. If you have never heard of JetSuiteX before, there is good reason--the airline does not fly out of Terminal A or Terminal B. They fly out of the private aviation terminal on the other side of the airport. That means fewer security hassles and going from the door to the plane in as little time as possible.

They just announced that they will by flying from SJC to Burbank twice per day, typically once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Tickets range from $129 one way for a ticket bought more than a week in advance to $199-$249 less than a week. The plane is an Embraer 135s with just 30 seats (10 rows of 3 seats). It's as close as you can get to flying private without spending thousands of dollars each way.

Source: SVBJ

2nd Annual San Jose Mini Maker Faire takes place September 4th

The second Maker Faire festival is coming to San Jose's History Park on Sunday, September 4th from 10am to 6pm. This family-friendly event is being run by History San Jose and will showcase makers, inventors, tinkerers, artists, builders, and crafters. It should be a great event to celebrate the creativity in Silicon Valley!

Tickets start at $12 for adults if you purchase your ticket in advance over here. There are discounts for children and History San Jose members. Prices at the door are 25% more expensive.

Major mixed-use redevelopment project proposed on Stevens Creek

West San Jose has not been getting a lot of attention lately when it comes to major development projects--especially when compared to Downtown and North San Jose. Developer FortBay LLC is stepping up to the plate and is proposing a 244,000 SQFT office complex along with 500 apartments at Stevens Creek and Lopina Way. That would been enough space for 1,500 jobs in West San Jose, allowing more residential to be built without contributing to our current jobs/housing imbalance.

The apartments would be built in two six-story buildings, the office would be in a separate six-story building, and there would be a six-story garage to handle the parking. It looks like the developers are a fan of buildings with six levels. Unfortunately it does not sound like there is a retail component.

Right now the area is not permitted for residential, so the developer is hoping to get "signature project" status which would given them a bit of leeway here. Combining office and residential into an urban village makes a lot of sense from a logistics and parking perspective, so I hope this goes through.

Source: SVBJ

WeWork is now open in Downtown San Jose

The Silicon Valley Business Journal has some great photos of San Jose's largest coworking space. WeWork has opened a 75,000 SQFT facility at 75 E. Santa Clara Street that provides flexible working space for small businesses and entrepreneurs. Over 60 companies are already in the process of moving in. The total capacity is 1,500 people (100-200 small companies).

Prices range from $350/mo for a "hot desk", $400-$450 for a dedicated desk, $660/mo for a one-person office and increase from that point on. WeWork provides all the necessary amenities and infrastructure such as internet access, printers, conference rooms, cleaning services, water, and coffee.

It's a great model for small companies that also provides a sense of community. Oh yeah, coworking also injects hundreds of entrepreneurs into the Downtown San Jose community, adding to the vibrancy of the area. NextSpace was the first coworking space in Downtown San Jose and it helped to transform that corner at 97 S. 2nd Street.

Check out the source link below for photos of the WeWork facilities and more information.

Source: SVBJ

United and JetBlue add more flights at SJC

This is becoming an ongoing theme. San Jose International continues to attract more and more flights, something which I find very well deserved. Beside the obvious location advantages, it is one of the best operated airports I have ever been to. Flights are rarely delayed, it is surprisingly fast to get to the gate, baggage comes quickly, even the TSA seems friendlier than other airports.

Finally the word is getting out--passenger traffic is up 9% at SJC in the first six months of 2016 and both United and JetBlue are adding more flights and routes. United is taking a page from Alaska's book and will fly directly from San Jose to Newark in March. That is not only the exact same time-frame as the new Alaska Airlines flight to New York, but the flight will leave and return at the exact same time (6:30am departure from SJC, arriving at EWR at 2:55pm, return flight leaves EWR at 4:05pm and arrives at SJC at 7:40pm). I was suspicious that this is the same flight as Alaska Airlines co-listed as United, but that does not seem to be the case. United is also adding a twice-daily nonstop from San Jose to Chicago O'Hare.

JetBlue is launching a nonstop between San Jose and Long Beach starting January 4th, 2017. The best part is that the route will be flown not once, not twice, but four times each day. This addition means that San Jose now has direct flights to all five LA airports (LAX, Burbank, Orange County, and Ontario are the others). JetBlue is promoting the flight with rates as low as $39 each way.

Sources: Forbes (thanks Josh Russell for sending this in), SVBJ

August 2016 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• The Family Justice Center is now open, merging six locations into a single courthouse facility. The eight story building is 233,906 SQFT and contains 20 different courtrooms.
• Four landscaping and design firms each received $25k to create a new vision for St. James Park. The new design must include a water feature and Levitt Pavilion outdoor stage.
• Downtown Doors expands to 103 sites, 20 new pieces of artwork have been added to Downtown sites.
• Starlight Cinemas is bringing back its movie series at St. James Park. Jurassic Park will play on Aug. 31 and Beetlejuice will air on Sep. 21.
• Jazz Summer Fest is taking place from Aug 12-14th, featuring 120 performances on 12 stages and bringing tens of thousands of people to Downtown San Jose.
• Origins Juicery, Downtown's first cold-pressed juice store, is now open at 150 S. 1st Street
• Pieology is now open at 99 E. San Fernando St.

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