Big Santana Row office expansion gets underway in San Jose

SAN JOSE — Santana Row’s next major expansion — the first office building in what could become a huge tech campus across the street from the iconic San Jose mixed-use destination — got underway with a formal groundbreaking on Tuesday.

The principal owner and developer of Santana Row, Federal Realty, is developing a 360,000-square-foot office building that is the vanguard of what could eventually become a million-square-foot mega-campus geared towards technology companies seeking a headquarters-style employment hub on Winchester Boulevard next to the bustling San Jose shopping center.

“You have created a sense of place here,” San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said Tuesday, touting Federal Realty’s endeavors at Santana Row. Referring to the under-construction office building, the mayor added, “We look forward to something quite extraordinary happening soon.”

Featuring stores, restaurants, choice office spaces, homes, and hotel rooms, Santana Row has emerged as a Northern California destination.

In recent years, though, Santana Row has assumed a fresh role: a magnet for tech companies that seek to create employment hubs near where their employees live and next to an enticing mixed-use complex.

“Santana West is going to be a great addition to Santana Row,” Jan Sweetnam, Federal Realty’s chief operating officer for the West Coast, said Tuesday. “It’s a place where people can live, work, shop, play, and innovate.”

In separate deals during 2015 and 2018, Federal Realty landed leases in two big office buildings at the south end of Santana Row. Up-and-coming tech company Splunk rented the new and modern office buildings.

“We saw this coming, with the lease to Splunk, that Santana Row and the surrounding area could become very attractive to innovative employers,” Liccardo said.

Now, Federal Realty hopes to parlay those successes into one or more tenants for the big office building whose construction began on Tuesday.

“This is really a testament to San Jose’s vision to have jobs close to where you live,” San Jose Vice Mayor Chappie Jones said.

The first office building, One Santana West, is expected to be available for tenants during the first three months of 2021. The second office building, the 360,000-square-foot Two Santana West, could become available as soon as the first three months of 2022, according to Federal Realty. Newmark Knight Frank commercial real estate agents Randy Gabrielson, Todd Shaffer, and Tracey Solari are seeking tenants for the offices.

“We have the ability to offer tenants all the amenities of Santana Row, and we have a tested and first-class landlord in Federal Realty,” said Gabrielson, an executive vice president with Newmark Knight Frank. “This development will provide a place where companies can recruit and retain employees in a high-quality location.”

Ultimately, Santana West could contain three modern office buildings that together would total up to 1 million square feet, enough office space for 5,000 to 6,700 workers. The first building alone could accommodate 1,800 to 2,400 employees.

“This is going to be a major job center, we’re talking about a lot of jobs,” San Jose Councilwoman Dev Davis said. “This is also going to create an important new source of revenue for the city.”

The new tech campus, with its gleaming and ultra-modern buildings, will nevertheless retain and preserve a relic of bygone days in the South Bay, the aging Century 21 movie dome, whose first-run films included the launch of the “Star Wars” epic as well as the initial “Indiana Jones” movie.

A lengthy battle over the fate of the Century 21 dome ultimately preserved the now-shuttered movie palace, although other adjacent movie domes will succumb to the wrecking ball.

The dome that will remain and someday be flanked by new office buildings could gain a fresh purpose as some sort of entertainment or cultural amenity, the mayor suggested in an interview. Interest is scant in a dome without windows, he added.

“There could hopefully be a re-imagining of that structure that could bring sunlight in there,” Liccardo said. “We could, for example, have an open-air amphitheater there. It could be a place for live music or plays. You could have corporate events there. It could be a gathering space for this area. I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion about the options.”

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