San Jose luxury apartment complex on The Alameda may become affordable housing in 2024

In an interesting pivot, Catalyst Housing Group is trying to acquire Modera - The Alameda and convert the property into affordable housing. The big question is... why?

Modera is a 168-unit apartment building that is being marketed as luxury apartments. It's literally located next to a Whole Foods and is blocks away from the SAP Center, Diridon Station, and the rest of Downtown San Jose. The Alameda is also a great neighborhood in its own right. 

While I think for-sale affordable housing will be better for the neighborhood as residents will stay in the community longer than those in apartments, it raises a lot of questions as to why Modera is for sale in the first place. It it struggling to maintain a profit or do the owners just want to cash out? Have they lost optimism in the location after Google delayed their Downtown West plans? (It's very close to that as well).

If anyone has additional insights or perhaps even lives in the building, please post your thoughts in the comments or on X (Twitter).

Source: SVBJ

Eight-story apartment building proposed near future San Jose Google campus

A restaurant called Con Sabor a Mexico on 500 West San Carlos Street might become the site of an eight-story apartment building. The address is significant since it's in the "Downtown West" neighborhood that Google eventually wants to turn into an urban campus in the Downtown San Jose.

The proposed building would have 90 apartments across eight floors, and 2,670 SQFT of ground-floor retail. Based on the initial render it looks like it will include some amount of parking. I don't quite understand the grid on one side of the building. Those could be some form of child-safe balconies or interior hallways that allow airflow to pass through.

Even without factoring for the Google campus, the location is a few blocks away from Diridon station and a few blocks away from Discovery Meadow and the Guadalupe River trail. The site would be extremely convenient for Adobe employees as well.

So far the development plans are preliminary and there is no formal ETA.

Source: The Mercury News

Stunning new illustration of Downtown San Jose

It's a pretty small community of people that make art specifically about San Jose. I'm a big fan of Phillip Gonzales from West Coast Artworks who prints original illustrations highlighting our city with a pinch of creative license on museum-grade canvas. I have bought two of his pieces in the past, SoFA district 1.0 (3rd one down) and Downtown San Jose (fourth one). Everyone that sees them at my house loves them.

He has a new work that is simply titled San Jose Downtown 2023. It features the Downtown San Jose skyline from the 280 and 87 intersection. If you look closely you'll spot some of our newer high-rises like 200 Park and the Miro Towers.

Phillip is also working on a couple of new pieces that should be ready in a few weeks. To go through all of his work, head over here. I'll also update my X and Facebook banner temporarily in honor of the new work!

Owners of the San Jose Flea Market cutting office components entirely and dramatically downsizing housing plans

The original plan for the San Jose Flea Market next to San Jose's only existing BART station was for 3,450 residential units (yellow in image below), 3,400,000 SQFT of commercial (teal), a 5-acre urban market (red) and a 1.4 acre public park and open space (green areas). Grey is parking.

Sadly, the owners have changed direction and have completely eliminated office space from the project. The new plan will only have 940 homes and 45,500 SQFT of ground-floor retail space.

They are taking advantage of a loophole in the builder's remedy--which streamlines approval for certain residential projects designed to encourage more housing and development--to actually reduce the size of the project. It's a classic example of good-intentioned law (like rent control) causing the exact opposite effect. If it were not a builder's remedy, San Jose could more easily reject the project and require higher density.

San Jose needs to build about 60,000 housing units over the next eight years to keep up with demand and State requirement. By taking this many homes off the table, it will be a huge step back.

Given the proximity to some of the largest tech companies in the world and immediate access to BART, this site easily could have become another Santana Row over the next decade. Plus its a destination easy to get to from anywhere in the Bay Area. Now, with the scaled back plans it will greatly undermine this opportunity. It may not have the critical mass necessary to pull anyone into San Jose as a destination and will barely make a dent on our housing requirements.

If a dense redevelopment of the San Jose Flea Market site is truly off the table, the next best step would be to quadruple down in Downtown San Jose to hit our target. The infrastructure and space for dense development is already there. Eliminate as many fees and bureaucratic steps as possible for large-scale residential development and let's get that housing built!

Source: SVBJ, SVBJ(2)

San Jose's bike-sharing program is expanding with 650 new e-bikes 🚲

By the end of this year, San Jose will increase their number of e-bikes by close to 60%. San Jose has gone to great lengths to make biking safer in San Jose over the past several years: increasing the number of dedicated bike lanes, creating protected bike lanes, and improving trails. This will help more people utilize the new infrastructure without having to haul their bikes with them or worry about them getting stolen.

San Jose will also get 21 new docking stations, which also charge the bikes. The good news doesn't end there. Annual memberships to the bikeshare program will drop from $169 to $150 and per-minute usage charges are dropping from 20 cents to 15 cents. In 2024 there will also be a discounted membership for college students. For low-income San Joseans, the membership cost is only $5 for the first year and $5/mo after that. 

It's the least expensive way to get around the Downtown San Jose area besides walking.

Source: SVBJ

San Jose Downtown Ice prepares for busy skating season starting Nov 17

Downtown Ice is back this year with one of the most unique ice rinks in the US. You can skate on two concentric circles surrounding palm trees across from San Jose's famous Christmas in the Park event. It officially starts on November 17th with a grand opening celebration on November 20th. For all of the details, the full press release is below.

SAN JOSE – San Jose Downtown Ice opens Nov. 17 for families from throughout the Bay Area who have made ice skating at the iconic rink a holiday tradition.

“This is Downtown Ice’s 26th season since its debut in 1994,” said Alex Stettinski, CEO of event partner San Jose Downtown Association.  “Children whose parents took them to skate downtown years ago are now moms and dads bringing their kids to enjoy our rink and all that downtown San Jose has to offer during the holidays.”

The circular rink located in and around the Circle of Palms plaza at 120 S Market St. will be open daily through Jan. 15. Ninety-minute sessions will occur every two hours.  Tickets can be purchased online at sjdowntownice.com.

 

Special Ice, the largest operator of seasonal outdoor rinks in California, will produce this year’s skating experience.

“Downtown Ice is an iconic event that leaves a lasting impression,” said Emery Lykins, president of Special Ice.  “We’re excited to be a part of the rink’s history, to contribute to this amazing city and hopefully usher in a revitalized future for the rink.”

Downtown Ice organizers hope for a second consecutive season of local and out-of-town guests surpassing pre-pandemic levels of 2019.  A recent report shows that the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day is downtown San Jose’s busiest, with almost 20 percent of last year’s 2.8 million visitors to the center city spending several hours within a three-block radius of the ice rink.  

Downtown Ice is nestled in the Circle of Palms plaza between the San Jose Museum of Art and the Signia by Hilton San Jose hotel.  The rink will join the rejuvenated Christmas in the Park displays as well as the popular Winter Wonderland amusement rides in the center of downtown’s major seasonal attractions.

Adding to downtown San Jose’s vibrancy and appeal as a weekend destination during the season are stage performances including two versions of The Nutcracker, concerts, Sharks hockey, museums and galleries, restaurants and shopping. Visit sjdowntown.com for events and downtown details, and parksj.org for parking information.

Downtown Ice has exciting skating promotions planned this season including:

• Sunday Show Tunes, presented by Broadway San Jose, where skaters can vote for their favorite Broadway songs; 

• Learn-to-Skate sessions;

• Family Skate packages; 

• The Grinch will be at the rink from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Nov. 25 to greet skaters and promote Broadway San Jose’s Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas - The Musical in town Nov. 28-Dec. 3; 

• The Ice Queens will entertain skaters Dec. 8 with a  performance, meet-and-greet and photo opportunity; 

• Signia by Hilton offers a Shopping and Champagne package for stays between Nov. 17 and Dec. 31 that includes two tickets to Downtown Ice; round-trip transportation with Lyft to Westfield Valley Fair; and a Bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne.

 

In addition, check sjdowntownice.com for a limited number of special $10 tickets for Opening Day Nov. 17 and the Grand Opening Celebration Nov. 20.  On both days, skaters are encouraged to look their best or be in costume for possible social media and television news coverage. The Opening Celebration at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 20 features emcees  Sandra Cervantes from Telemundo 48 and NBC Bay Area's Mike Inouye.

San Jose Downtown Ice sponsors include Jay Paul Co., Kaiser Permanente, Creekside Socials, Adobe, Broadway San Jose, City of San Jose Environmental Services Department, San Jose Earthquakes, LS Power Grid, NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48.  The City of San Jose funds the event as well.

“It takes a lot of support and work behind the scenes to build and operate this rink, but it’s so worth it when you see the laughter of the kids and the joyful moments and memories shared by all the families,” said Lykens, whose business also has Northern California rinks this winter in Walnut Creek, San Ramon and Folsom .

 ###

Event Snapshot

San Jose Downtown Ice - Nov. 17, 2023-Jan. 15, 2024 

Downtown Ice is a traditional seasonal event for families and friends who twirl and skate amid concentric circles of 32 palms, under a canopy of stars on an iconic skating rink in the heart of downtown San Jose’s biggest attractions.

Information and tickets :  sjdowntownice.com.

Direct ticket link: sanjose.ticketspice.com/san-jose-downtown-ice-23-24

Instagram:  instagram.com/sjdowntownice

Hours:  90-minute sessions start every 2 hours: 11 a.m.; 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m.

• Open 11 am - 9 pm from November 17 - December 15

• Open 11 am -11 pm from December 16 - January 1 (9 p.m. session added)

• Open 11 am - 9 pm from January 2 - January 15

Location: 120 S. Market St., Downtown San Jose – between the San Jose Museum of Art and Signia by Hilton San Jose

Opening Celebration: Monday, November 20; 5:30 p.m.

Co-Emcees:  Sandra Cervantes from Telemundo 48 and NBC Bay Area's Mike Inouye 

San Jose ranked as the #1 most innovative metro in the US

San Jose and the San Jose metro (the true definition of Silicon Valley) have become synonymous with innovation. One of the ways we can gauge this is by the number of patents filed in each region. In this metric, San Jose completely crushes any other metro in the US with 9,798 patents filed last year. NYC came in second with 6,275 patents and San Francisco got the bronze with 4,919 patents. That is already extremely impressive. But that's not the whole story...

The San Jose metro has a population of 2 million people. NYC, the runner up, has a population of almost 20 million people (!!!). So despite having 10% of the population, San Jose still filed more patents than an area more populous than most States. Even when you look at our neighbors up North, the SF Metro includes Oakland and Alameda County and has a total population of 4.6 million. So again, despite being less than half the size we filed double the patents as the SF metro. This is a key reason why the US Patent Office decided to open a satellite location in San Jose, not San Francisco.

Make no mistake, we are still the innovation capital of the world by far.

Top 25 Most Innovative US Metros (Patents Filed)

San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (9,798)

New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (6,275)

San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA (4,919)

Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA (3,773)

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA (2,091)

Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (1,798)

Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, VA (1,489)

San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA (1,190)

Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI (896)

Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA (812)

Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI (770)

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL (761)

Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown, TX (626)

Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE (532)

Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX (499)

Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX (453)

Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC (404)

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN (321)

Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY (315)

Raleigh-Cary, NC (289)

Bloomington, IL (282)

Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO (265)

Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (238)

Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT (235)

Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ (185)

Source: Bay Area Inno

Markers Market in the Park at Santana Row on Nov 11th

Tomorrow Santana Row is hosting a "Makers Market" featuring local entrepreneurs. Items for sale include jewelry, organic body products, candles, plants, home goods, apparel, glass, and even some CBD products. The best part is you can sip & stroll at the Makers Market. Grab your favorite cocktail to-go from Zazil, El Jardin, EMC Seafood (great Old Fashioned), Left Bank Brasserie, or Vintage Wine Bar and you can take it with you as you browse and shop between Olin Ave. and Olsen Dr.

The event is kid and fur baby friendly and runs from 11am-6pm tomorrow (Saturday, Nov 11th).