BART to Silicon Valley Phase 2 construction officially begins

After decades of planning, the 2nd phase of BART's extension into San Jose (and Santa Clara) is underway. Construction has started in Brokaw Road in Santa Clara and is expected to create 75,000 jobs.

Phase 1 opened about four years ago with the Milpitas and Berryessa/North San Jose station. Phase 2 will be much more complicated as it requires a subway to be built for three of the stations and will utilize a tunneling method that has been done in the United States. Impact to Downtown San Jose and local businesses should be much less using this method over traditional "cut and cover" subway construction.

The 2nd phase is expected to cost $13 billion and be ready for use in 12 years. The initial estimate was a price tag of $4.4 billion and an opening in 2026. Hopefully there will be some ways to reduce cost and expedite the timeline in the near future.

Source: The Mercury News

San Jose Pride Block Party on June 22nd

The Guadalupe River Park Conservancy and Silicon Valley Pride are hosting a free block party on June 22nd from 12pm to 4pm at the Arena Green West (N Autumn St.) in San Jose. The event includes live music and DJs, food, wine/beer, a drag show, and resource booths. Yet another fun event in Downtown San Jose!

New housing project near SoFA gets funding

166 apartments (164 of which are designated as affordable units) are slated for 802 South First Street just outside the traditional boundaries of Downtown San Jose. The site is just south of Highway 280, a few blocks away from SoFA. The six-story building also includes 1,500 SQFT of ground-floor retail. 

The project will cost nearly $100 million. Fortunately, PNC is willing to finance $66 million of that between a construction loan and bridge loan. The rest will be mostly made up by state-backed financing.

The goal is to kick off construction by September with an expected completion date of 2026.

Source: The Mercury News

Red Lobster planning to shut down its last San Jose location

Red Lobster recently announced another set of locations to close across the United States as part of its bankruptcy and sadly the very last location in San Jose was on the list. 

Sitting at the corner Capitol Expressway and Aborn Road, this has been a staple in Evergreen for decades. In fact, of all the amazing restaurants in Downtown San Jose, I don't think I have been to any of them as often as this Red Lobster. This was always the restaurant I would go to with family for small celebrations. It provided access to pretty decent seafood at affordable prices.

I'm pretty surprised this location is on the chopping block. Despite the high cost of real estate, it always seemed to be packed. Anyway, it will be and end to an era and hopefully something really interesting will take it's place that will become a new staple for the neighborhood.

The locations in Milpitas, Stockton, and Vallejo are also planning to close.

Source: The Mercury News

Unique open house in South San Jose this Saturday - 6810 Canine Court

Everyone complains about affordability in San Jose, but there are still some really interesting opportunities if you know where to look. There is a very unique townhome-style condo for sale in South San Jose in a brand new neighborhood near the intersection of 101 and 85. 

It's a massive 2,506 SQFT home with 4 oversized bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. That makes it larger than most single family homes in San Jose, yet the listing price is only $555 a square foot.

Costco is literally across the street and several great restaurants are minutes away (I highly recommend Blossom and Bourbon). It also has great parks within the community with bocce ball, basketball, multiple playgrounds for the kids, an outdoor gym, and gated dog park. The Santa Teresa Light Rail station is a 15min walk or 4min bike ride away.

My wife is the realtor and is hosting an open house this weekend from 1-4pm on Saturday with free bubbly and an assortment of appetizers highlighting a highly-rated local San Jose eatery. Last week was Pasteleria Adega and this week it will be something new but equally as awesome. Even if you're not looking for a new home, swing on by to check out the neighborhood and talk San Jose. The address is 6810 Canine Court in San Jose.

Be one of the first 8 groups to mention The San Jose Blog and take home a bottle of either Prosecco or Rosé.

400 foot tall Willow Park project wants to blast through approvals

While not in San Jose or even Santa Clara County, this project is so insane it is worth mentioning. A Bay Area-based developer called Development N17 submitted an application with the city of Menlo Park for a mixed-use project with a 665 units of housing, a 130-room hotel, 324,000 SQFT of office space, 4.9 acres of open space and parks, and a Montessori school. All of this is planned on just 6.7 acres of land.

The tallest building in the complex would be 431 feet high while other buildings would stand 367 feet and 271 feet tall. This would easily be the tallest project between San Francisco and Los Angeles, with it's flagship building standing over 130 feet taller than anything in San Jose.

Willow Park would replace single-story office building from 1951.

The developer is seeking expedited approval and want to start building as soon as possible. 133 units are allocated for affordable housing, which allows them to use an entitlement process known as "builders remedy" which prohibits the city from denying housing developments if the city does not have an approved plan for meeting their housing requirements (which Menlo Park does not).

I really wish this proposal was for San Jose, but I'm optimistic this will have local developers taking bigger bets like this one for the Capital of Silicon Valley.

Source: SVBJ

41st San Jose Fountain Blues & Brews Festival

The San Jose Fountain Blues & Brew Festival returns this weekend at Plaza de Cesar Chavez on Saturday, June 15th from 11am to 8pm. The roster features nine hours of national and regional talent across two stages featuring every genre of blues you can imagine. It's the longest running blues festival in Northern California and is expected to have over 2,500 attendees.

In addition to the great music, there will be over 40 breweries including local favorites like Gordon Biersch, Fox Tale, and Bare Bottle. Artist vendor booths and family-friendly lawn games round out the event.

For more info and tickets, head over here.

2024 Silicon Valley Index

The Joint Venture Silicon Valley Index has been providing insights on our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for over 25 years. It provides an honest and holistic view of life in Silicon Valley. You can download the 2024 Silicon Valley Index over here.

Have a quick look at the comparison between Silicon Valley and San Francisco in the image below. Here are some of my notes from the key findings:

• We're growing again with 11,300 new Silicon Valley residents last year.
• VC dollars going into AI have risen 220% year-over-year. Generative AI represented 44% of all 2023 VC investments in AI companies.
• Silicon Valley just had four IPOs last year. San Francisco had one.
• We're still generating more patents by far than any other place in the nation. San Jose is the top city in the nation yet again for patent filing.
• Silicon Valley's 20 largest tech companies were 7% smaller at the end of 2023 than than the previous year, but employment in tech still ended up being 37,000 employees more than pre-pandemic figures. Tech is now 28% of the workforce.
•  If wealth was evenly distributed in Silicon Valley, it would amount to $2 million per household.
• Silicon Valley's population continues to age, with those over 65 years old up by 32% since 2012 and the number of children down by 13% over the same period.
• The number of births each year in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has declined steadily since the 1990s, dropping by 33% over 33 years.
• 51% of Silicon Valley speaks a language other than English at home
• The two largest office projects in Silicon Valley last year were both in Downtown San Jose, 200 Park (965,342 SQFT) and Adobe's 4th Tower (700,000 SQFT). The 3rd largest was a 350,000 SQFT building in South San Francisco.
• Silicon Valley childcare costs have quadrupled over the past 20 years, rising twice as fast as regional inflation.
• There were no unhealthy air days in the past three years, showing an improvement in air quality.
• Total solar capacity increased sixfold over the past decade, from 174 MW in 2013 to 983 MW in 2023. Batter storage grew twentyfold in the past 5 years.
• Gasoline and Diesel sales have steadily declined and are still 19% below pre-pandemic levels (presumably due to EV sales)
• 17% of all Californian EV charging outlets are in Silicon Valley, over 5,000 in Santa Clara County alone.
• Life expectancy is several years higher in Silicon Valley versus California or the United States.