SAN JOSE – A car parking zone in downtown San Jose could turn out to be the positioning of a residential development with lots of of housing units. This revised plan shows how a troublesome economy has sparked dramatic changes within the Bay Area's real estate market.
Westbank, a mega-developer with global reach, has proposed a serious residential project to exchange an office and residential project proposed several years ago on the positioning at 35 South Second Street.
The new edition of the proposal calls for 768 housing units on the positioning, in line with San Jose Planning Department filings.
“We are pleased to have submitted an application for the Energy Hub with a new, predominantly residential development plan,” said Andrew Jacobson, general manager of Westbank’s U.S. business.
The Energy Hub project site has a complete area of 1.25 acres and is positioned next to Fountain Alley, a busy restaurant street between South Second Street and South First Street.
Canada-based Westbank is partnering with renowned architecture and design firm Bjarke Ingels Group to create the feel and appear of the proposed residential development.
The Fountain Alley residential project would also include roughly 10,700 square meters of retail space on the bottom floor, in line with planning documents.
The revised proposal for the Energy Hub project is in a really early review phase in San Jose.
“We look forward to moving forward with the approval process with the City of San Jose,” Jacobson said.
Westbank has proposed several projects in downtown San Jose, which the true estate company describes
Earlier this month, Westbank proposed moving away from an office and retail tower at 255 West Julian Street, a project that had been proposed for a site next to the landmark Davidson Building in downtown San Jose.
Westbank has also modified its strategy for the historic Bank of Italy tower at 12 South First Street, across the corner from the Energy Hub complex in Fountain Alley.
Instead of creative workspaces, the offices of the Bank of Italy are being converted into residential units.
The inhospitable landscape of the Bay Area office market, with its astronomically high emptiness rates, layoffs within the tech industry, and low rents, has led more developers to desert their office projects and even demolish existing office buildings to make way for big recent residential projects.
Technology firms cut 16,000 jobs within the 12 months through July, in line with an estimate of seasonally adjusted figures from Beacon Economics, which is compiled by government agencies.
The layoffs have severely limited the technology sector's need for office space within the Bay Area.
Given these brutal circumstances for the office market, savvy developers like Westbank have turned their focus to residential projects.
Westbank's recent vision for the Energy Hub site in Fountain Alley will spur economic activity in downtown San Jose, said Bob Staedler, managing director of land-use consulting firm Silicon Valley Synergy.
“Converting office buildings to residential units will help improve the vibrancy of downtown San Jose,” Staedler said. “Density in urban areas near transportation will continue to be a win-win for both developers and the City of San Jose.”
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