Huge tech campus expansion eyed in north San Jose near Google sites

SAN JOSE — A legendary developer has proposed a vast expansion of a tech campus that would add 1.5 million square feet of offices in north San Jose next to where Google has already leased several big office buildings, city documents show.

Five big office sites would sprout next to four office buildings that developer Peery Arrillaga leased in 2019 to the search giant near the corner of North First Street and Brokaw Road, according to the city documents.

The new buildings in the tech complex would add 1.52 million square feet of offices to north San Jose, the documents that Peery Arrillaga has filed with the city show.

Five 10-story office buildings, along with five parking structures, would be built in this phase of the development, according to the municipal documents. The proposal is described as “preliminary.” Each of the five offices would total roughly 303,000 square feet.

Developers John Arrillaga and Richard Peery couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about the proposal. Palo Alto-based Peery Arrillaga is one of Silicon Valley’s most dominant and successful development firms.

Of particular interest is that the new preliminary proposal from Peery Arrillaga envisions a somewhat larger campus than what was previously considered for the site.

If the new proposal is granted approval, the completed north San Jose development would total a head-spinning 2.25 million square feet — enough office space for more than 11,000 tech workers.

The currently approved plans would allow as much as 2.03 million square feet of offices.

The expanded development site would front on North First Street, Brokaw Road, Bering Road, Crane Court, and U.S. Highway 101.

In April 2019, Google leased the first four office buildings in the project, in a deal that totaled 729,000 square feet of office space.

The five new buildings would be directly adjacent to the quartet of offices that Google had rented in the prior deal with Peery Arrillaga.

“It’s not a huge leap to imagine that Peery and Arrillaga wouldn’t be doing this on a whim,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with San Jose-based Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “Peery Arrillaga makes good decisions. They may appear lucky time after time but in reality, these are well-planned projects supported by strong relationships with big tech companies.”

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Google has just bought this familiar site in downtown San Jose Much like Jay Paul, another mega-developer in Silicon Valley, the Peery Arrillaga firm has established strong connections through prior leasing and property purchasing deals with other big tech companies in the region. Those relationships can often yield multiple deals with a tech giant.

“Peery Arrillaga probably took the temperature of who is likely to occupy the new buildings and they pivoted a little bit,” Staedler said.

Four Google tech hubs have begun to sprout in San Jose, a dramatic expansion by a world-renowned company that could translate into 30,000 new jobs — and perhaps many more, depending on the digital dynamo’s use of newly bought sites.

The most high profile enterprise by Google is the company’s game-changing Downtown West transit village. Google plans a transit-oriented neighborhood of office buildings, shops, restaurants, hotel facilities, entertainment hubs, cultural amenities, homes, and open spaces near the Diridon train station.

Yet it’s also clear that Google has its sights set on multiple expansion hubs beyond the downtown.

Google’s principal areas of interest outside of downtown have sprouted as a daisy chain of sites along or near the North First Street light rail line. These Google nests include the Peery Arrillaga-owned campus at First and Brokaw, which also is a short distance from San Jose’s increasingly busy airport.

The expansion proposal from the Peery Arrillaga firm is a fresh indicator that plenty of office construction is already in the pipeline in San Jose and could increase dramatically.

Federal Realty Investment Trust is constructing a modern office building at the Santana West office complex across the street from iconic Santana Row in western San Jose.

In downtown San Jose, developer Jay Paul Co. has launched the construction of a sleek new office tower at 200 Park Ave. Jay Paul also has dropped strong hints that it is eager to begin redevelopment of one of the downtown’s most intriguing sites, the outmoded — but huge — block now occupied by CityView Plaza.

“Richard Peery and John Arrillaga historically make good choices on development,” Staedler said. “This development proposal is another bellwether that San Jose’s fiscal strength will continue to improve.”

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