Shopping in San Jose

Visit San Jose has just released a video promoting shopping in San Jose  It's less than 90 seconds long, and highlights Santana Row, Valley Fair, Downtown San Jose, and Japantown. 

Santana Row and Valley Fair have become shopping ground zero for the entire Bay Area. While many malls around the country are closing, "Uptown" continues to reel in exclusive brands and experiences. Anyway, check out the short video embedded below.

Dual high-rise project Icon/Echo requests an extension

One of the most anticipated development projects in San Jose is Icon/Echo at 147 East Santa Clara street. It's being developed by the San Jose superfans at Urban Catalyst. This firm has just completed it's Paseo project at the former Camera 12, now featuring Urban Putt and Eos & Nyx. They are also wrapping up a new Marriott Hotel with 176 rooms near the SAP Center.

Icon/Echo is one of Urban Catalyst's most ambitious projects. It'll have two towers, one 265 feet tall and the other 263 feet. Combined they will have 1,039 apartments.

Urban Catalyst has just requested an extension request to extend entitlement approvals by another two years. The financing market is challenging right now, and they need to shore up enough capital before starting construction. They have been successful with other projects in the past, and Downtown San Jose is only expected to get hotter when it comes to residential development in the future. I'm very optimistic we'll get to see this project move forward.

Source: SF YIMBY

San Jose Museums

Our friends at SJ Today have a list of San Jose museums. However, it misses a few interesting ones. After you click through to the link, come back here to see what was excluded.

There is a new Adobe museum on the ground floor of the Adobe Tower 4 headquarters in Downtown San Jose. It's free, has a history of Adobe's software, and has a slick virtual reality room.

Also in Downtown San Jose is a new Italian Heritage museum in Little Italy San Jose. An added bonus is a speakeasy underneath the building.

In Almaden, there is a Quicksilver Mining Museum, which chronicles San Jose's mining industry last century.

Lastly, History Park is not one museum but multiple. Here you will find the Portuguese Historical Museum, the Viet Museum, and Chinese American Historical Museum. They also have a replica light tower and several restored historical buildings. It's a great place to visit, especially during major events, and you can easily combine it with a trip to the neighboring Japanese Friendship Gardens or Happy Hollow Park & Zoo.

Source: SJ Today

What local artists and writers have to say about Silicon Valley

Opportunity Now has a four-part series on what Silicon Valley means to local artists and writers. There are a lot of interesting perspectives in there, many of which highlight things that we take for granted every day. I shared some of my thoughts in Part 4 below.

What makes Silicon Valley so distinctive? Reflect with local artists, writers, and performers (1/4)

“There’s a way past any obstacle”: Artists praise the steadfast Silicon Valley spirit (2/4)

A window into so many different worlds”: Why Silicon Valley resonates so strongly with local artists (3/4)
Local artists and writers celebrate Silicon Valley’s unique, tenacious, “daring” culture (4/4)

Source: Opportunity Now

Dining and Nightlife in San Jose

Visit San Jose has just released a new video promoting dining and nightlife in San Jose. It's only 90 seconds long, yet highlights a multitude of areas: Valley Fair (Eataly in the opening shot), Santana Row, Downtown San Jose, Willow Glen, The Alameda, San Pedro Square, the Historic District, Qmunity, Little Italy San Jose, Japantown, and SoFA.

The video is a great reminder of all the great options we have in San Jose. Also, it's Friday! The perfect day to go out and try someplace new.

New San Jose International Airport routes - Baltimore/Washington and Detroit

It looks like a pair of routes will be returning soon to SJC in 2025. Southwest will have nonstop service to Baltimore/Washington. Delta is bringing back direct flights to Detroit.

For Delta, the Detroit flight will begin on July 7th. Departing flights from SJC will be red-eyes, leaving at 11pm and arriving in Detroit at 6:30am. The return flight leaves Detroit at 7:55pm and arrives in San Jose at 9:51pm.

Hopefully this is the sign of more flights being added to SJC's roster this year!

Source: Dirk_Birkin at Skyscraper City

Big events coming to San Jose in 2025

SJ Today has a list of major events coming to San Jose this year. These include the Lunar New Year Tet Festival, Friend Fest, Cinequest Film Festival, SubZERO, FoodieLand, Summer Jazz Fest, and many other. Most of the big ones start in February. Check it out at the link below.

Source: SJ Today

Astera Labs relocating HQ to San Jose

The San Jose office market is still facing many challenges (Downtown San Jose just recently hit a 20 year vacancy high), so any news is good news. Astera Labs has just announced that they are moving to San Jose.

Astera focuses on providing purpose-built connectivity solutions for intelligent systems, primarily targeting AI and cloud infrastructure. They currently have around 400 employees around the world.

Their current headquarters is in Santa Clara at 2901 Tasman Drive. Their new headquarters will be at 2345, 2315, and 2343 North First Street in North San Jose. The new space will total 154,231 SQFT of office space, with an option to expand if needed.

The planned move is scheduled for the second quarter of this year.

Source: SVBJ