SAN JOSE — Starcity has bought the site it needs to construct a co-living residential tower in downtown San Jose that would offer dormitory style habitation as a way to curb housing costs.

“This is a huge milestone for this company, as well as for the project itself,” Jon Dishotsky, chief executive officer of Starcity, said in an interview with this news organization. “This is our largest land acquisition to date.”

Starcity, acting through an affiliate, bought the downtown San Jose site at 199 Bassett St. on Feb. 8, according to Santa Clara County public documents.

“We are very bullish about downtown San Jose,” Dishotsky said. “We have had our eye on this site for a very long time. San Jose is the next urban place in the Bay Area.”

The co-living developer was bullish enough to pay $18 million in cash for the property, the county records show. The deal was arranged through brokers from the San Jose office of Cushman & Wakefield.

Among the reasons the buyers are optimistic: A burst of development activity is underway in downtown San Jose, investors have grabbed a widening number of properties in the area, and more tenants are moving into commercial spaces in the city’s urban core.

Plus, big tech companies such as Google and Adobe have actively sketched out plans for major expansions in downtown San Jose for their operations.

“This co-living project will definitely benefit the expansions in the area because there will be more housing options in downtown San Jose,” said Erik Hallgrimson, an executive managing director with Cushman & Wakefield. “This can create more affordable housing.”

Although the Starcity affiliate paid cash for the project site, the developer must still scout for a lender to provide the funding, according to Dishotsky.

“We have already received some term sheets for a construction loan,” Dishotsky said. “We hope to close that loan within the next month or two.”

The development, which has been called Aviato in project proposals, is currently envisioned as an 18-story residential tower that would contain about 750 to 790 co-living units. The project is close to the Diridon train station and the site of a large transit village of offices, restaurants, shops, hotel rooms and homes proposed by Google.

“We are taking an existing and approved project and we are applying our interior format to the development,” Dishotsky said.

That format features tenants who rent tiny rooms in larger apartments that provide access to common necessities such as a kitchen and living room.

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Cohousing: The new Bay Area trend in senior living Each floor also would have gathering areas for activities such as doing work or the offering of amenities such as wellness classes that can include yoga sessions. Starcity wants to offer more than a long hallway flanked by a succession of doorways.

“This will feel like a vertical neighborhood,” Dishotsky said.