Fountain Alley Fridays

Today, experience a new event in Downtown San Jose's Fountain Alley neighborhood (between 1st and 2nd Street near Santa Clara Street). Fountain Alley Fridays feature live music, ping pong, stand-up acts, and live painting. If you have fun tonight, this is happening again on December 15th as well. For more info and a list of specific acts, head over here!

Broadcom is moving its headquarters to San Jose

Broadcom is a Singapore-based semiconductor company that purchased Brocade for $5.9 billion late last year. The company had decided to take advantage of that acquisition and officially move its headquarters to the US, and even more specifically to San Jose. The announcement was actually made by Trump at a White House press conference. Why is this so significant? It means $20 billion (with a "b") in revenue will be pouring into the US. Only a fraction of that will impact the economy, but it is a significant announcement nonetheless. It also could mean more jobs in San Jose.

Broadcom has become one of the largest companies in the world with a total market cap of $110 billion.

Source: SVBJ

The Great 408

On San Jose's 240th birthday last week (November 29th), Mayor Sam Liccardo and Mercury News Columnist Sal Pizarro launched a campaign to celebrate San Jose's story. Below is their letter to the community:



Dear Neighbors,

As two longtime San Jose residents, we feel fortunate to live in a community with a rich history and a unique, sometimes quirky, character. So, today - on San Jose's 240th birthday, we've come together launch The Great 408: a campaign to celebrate the gems, history, and culture that have helped make San Jose the great city it is, and set the tone for our future. 

Each week, we'll unveil interesting, unique tidbits on the campaign's website - great408.org - that we hope will both fuel San Josean pride and inspire others to learn more about the city we call home. 

While we've gotten the ball rolling with an initial list of 10 fun facts, we want you to join in by submitting your ideas on the Great408 website. We'll add public submissions to our weekly reveal to help ensure that The Great 408 remains a community-wide campaign. As our list grows, we hope you'll share all that's great in the 408 on social media, using #Great408. 

We're excited to share San Jose's story, and we hope you'll join us on this adventure. 

Sam Liccardo, San Jose Mayor 
Sal Pizarro, Mercury News Columnist 

In addition to the letter you can see their video introduction to the project over here. I love this idea and hope you will all contribute lots of ideas to great408.org!

NETGEAR flagship pop-up at Santana Row

NETGEAR is a San Jose-based tech company that specializes in internet hardware. They make some of the best wireless routers available and I have owned many of them over the years. This holiday season they have decided to open a flagship pop-up store in their backyard. The Santana Row shop will let consumers test out NETGEAR's three key product lines: Arlo, Orbi, and Nighthawk.

The popup is open now through the end of the year.

San Jose's future tallest high-rises broke ground!

MIRO is San Jose's latest luxury housing project. It was originally proposed as a combination of offices and housing across the street from our iconic City Hall with one tower dedicated to offices and another dedicated to residential. The current plan focuses primarily on residential with only 20,000 SQFT of retail and commercial space (the entire project is 1,000,000 SQFT).

Each tower is 28 stories and 298 feet tall, so you are looking at the future #1 and #2 tallest buildings in San Jose. For reference, the San Jose City Hall is 285 feet tall and The 88 (our current tallest building) is 286 feet tall.

The project has a total of 600 units split among one, two, and three bedroom layouts. 16 of those will be extra-fancy penthouses. As far as amenities go, this might be the most impressive residential project in the Bay Area. 50,000 SQFT of indoor and outdoor amenity space is reserved for residents. That includes the standard fitness centers, loungers, pet facilities, and concierge. However, MIRO takes it to the next level with a rooftop pool (!) and rooftop lounges that will provide a spectacular view of Silicon Valley. There is also a spa in the building.

MIRO should be completed in 2020. It is way too early for pricing, but expect these units to set new records for San Jose condos.

Source: The Registry

SPSM Tree Lighting Ceremony

Tomorrow at 4pm, the San Pedro Square Market is having its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The event is free and features music, carolers, and holiday activities.

Your eyes will melt when you see how much income is needed to buy a house in San Jose

The average annual income you need to buy a home in the United States is $55,390. That is already an insane amount for most of the globe. In New York City that figure doubles to $99,151. San Francisco more than triples the national average with a staggering $173,330. Unfortunately, San Jose takes the national crown in one of the few stats we don't want to dominate. Brace yourself... to buy a medium priced home in San Jose today--you should be making $216,181 each year. Oh, and that is assuming you have the capital saved up for a 20% down payment. Um, ouch!

Source: SiliconBeat

November 2017 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• Downtown ice is open daily until Junuary 15th in the Circle of Palms. Perfect timing for the US Figure Skating Championships which run Dec. 29-Jan 8th (featuring a San Jose local, Polina Edmunds). More than 50,000 skaters are expected this season.
• Major Sam Liccardo unveiled a housing plan that would eliminate constraints to encourage the additional development of 12,500 new residential units Downtown by 2022. This include speeding up permit approvals, updating Zoning to address building height limitations, eliminating parking requirements, and expanding Downtown Core boundaries.
• Patterson + Sheridan, LLP have moved their California office from Palo Alto, to 50 W. San Fernando, Suite 250.
• Dsitrict San Jose opened in October in the former BlackArrow offices at 65 N. San Pedro.
• Chipotle is now open at One South Market (joining Proper Cup, Earl of Sandwich, and Bishop Barber Shop).
• Spponfish Poke is now open at 111 Paseo de San Antonio.
• Fur Elyse is now open at 151 S. Second Street, serving modern French Vietnamese.
• Camera 3 renovation is going full-speed ahead. The official grand re-opening will be Dec. 31.

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