SAN JOSE — SummerHill Homes is eyeing a residential, live-work and retail development near The Alameda in San Jose, an area that is close to Google’s proposed downtown transit village.

The development would include 187 residences, consisting of 172 apartments and 15 live-work units, according to a preliminary proposal submitted to San Jose city planners.

“SummerHill Apartment Communities identified this site as an excellent location for new residential housing primarily due to its proximity to downtown San Jose and its employment center,” said Katia Kamangar, an executive vice president and managing director with SummerHill Homes.

If built, the project would be located on the south side of Julian between Keeble and Morrison avenues, and totals roughly 1.5 acres, according to SummerHill.

“The location is ideal for those working in downtown San Jose looking to reduce their commute times,” Kamangar said.

Adobe plans to dramatically expand its existing three-building downtown San Jose headquarters campus by adding a fourth office tower on an adjacent site. Construction is due to formally begin in late June on the new Adobe high rise.

Google has proposed a transit-oriented community of office buildings, homes, shops and restaurants in downtown San Jose where 25,000 could work, including 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees.

“The area is already rich in retail, services and restaurants and benefits from transit service along The Alameda, all of which make this area attractive for housing,” said Kamangar.

The 15 live-work units each would be 1,300 square feet, front on West Julian Street and would have individual entries directly from the ground level. The 172 residential units would all be rentals, SummerHill said.

The ground-floor retail would total about 2,800 square feet, the preliminary plans on file with the city indicated.

“This site is in the sweet spot of The Alameda and is very walkable to a lot of amenities,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with San Jose-based Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning firm that is consulting with SummerHill on the project. “It’s also a quick bike ride to Diridon Station. This is in-fill development in action.”

More of these kinds of projects are likely to sprout in San Jose, both in the downtown and nearby areas such as The Alameda and the midtown area between the downtown and the Santana Row and Valley Fair malls.

That’s expected to happen partly because of the benefits that developers anticipate for projects that are near the Diridon station, which already is a hub for an array of train links, including light rail, ACE Train, Caltrain, Capitol Corridor and Amtrak. But in the next several years, the station also will connect to BART.

Development that is clustered at or very near transit hubs reflects San Jose’s efforts to “grow up rather than out” and focus on greater density within the city limits rather than to sprawl to the nearby foothills and open areas such as Coyote Valley.

“This is all part of the ongoing evolution of San Jose,” Staedler said.

Those transit connections appeal to SummerHill, according to Kamangar.

“We have been actively looking for more opportunities to build housing in San Jose for some time now,” Kamangar said. “With the Diridon Station plans underway and more jobs than ever in downtown San Jose, we see this as an excellent opportunity site for new rental housing.”