Eye-catching vision emerges for San Jose three-tower housing project
A trio of housing highrises -- including one in the shape of a cylinder -- could produce more than 1,000 residential units in San Jose.
SAN JOSE — A trio of housing highrises — including one in the shape of a cylinder — could become an eye-catching addition to the San Jose skyline and produce more than 1,000 residential units, new plans show.
The proposed development would produce 1,147 residential units and sprout in downtown San Jose’s lively and trendy SoFA district, according to documents on file with city officials.
The three towers would be 30 stories and soar skyward to a height of as much as 301 feet, the proposal states.
Canada-based Westbank, a mega developer with a global reach; and San Jose-based Urban Community, a local development firm headed up by Gary Dillabough and Jeff Arrillaga, have teamed up to develop the project.
The development would be built on what’s known as the Valley Title site at 300 South First Street and 345 South Second Street, with an additional frontage on East San Carlos Street.
The proposal represents a pivot for Westbank and Urban Community, which had originally proposed office towers on the site at a time when the Bay Area office market was still robust before the onset of the coronavirus outbreak.
In the wake of the economic catastrophe unleashed by the coronavirus, tech companies and other corporations have dramatically curbed their enthusiasm to occupy office space.
As a result, developers have proposed nearly no new office projects unless a tenant had already signed a deal to lease or buy the property ahead of its construction.
In other instances, developers have scrapped their office projects and replaced them with proposals for new housing.
This is the case with the project at the Valley Title site, where Westbank and Urban Community once planned office towers.
In addition to the housing, the development on the Valley Title site would include 18,400 square feet of retail space and 8,700 square feet of residential amenities such as a ground-floor courtyard and gym, the project plans show.
Westbank has proposed several large projects in downtown San Jose consisting of both office towers and housing highrises.
These projects are all slated to materialize on sites that Westbank bought in recent years. None, however, have broken ground.
Westbank’s primary construction activity in downtown San Jose is the company’s renovation and upgrade of the Bank of Italy historic tower at 12 South First Street.
The development firm has launched a top-to-bottom revamp of the scores of offices inside the old tower so the workspaces could be converted into housing units. It’s unknown when this redevelopment will be completed.
Regarding the Valley Title site, the existing three-story office building totaling 58,400 square feet at the corner of South First and East San Carlos streets would be demolished and replaced by the new towers.
Westbank and Urban Community are also keeping an option of developing two office and retail towers on the site. These 20-story highrises would total 1.32 million square feet of space. This version would include 60,400 square feet of ground-level retail or community-serving spaces.
The proposal for the housing towers is now undergoing the San Jose city review process. It wasn’t immediately clear how long it might take for municipal officials to give final approval to the housing towers.
Westbank didn’t offer a potential timeline for the development of the housing towers or the original office project.
Despite a fever-pitch level of demand for housing in the Bay Area, a need that is particularly acute in the South Bay, developers have sometimes struggled to launch construction on major projects.
That’s because a combination of sky-high interest rates and persistently elevated costs for labor and materials due to the brutal inflation rate in this region and nationwide have coalesced to make new construction expensive.
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