A 20-story office tower designed to hold up 4,600 tech workers, accommodate a substantial expansion of the Tech Interactive and help transform San Jose’s downtown landscape has passed a major hurdle.

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday night unanimously approved plans submitted by the Museum Place Owner — a group led by realty entrepreneur Gary Dillabough — to build a 20-story office high-rise “designed to attract a tech tenant” on one of San Jose’s most sought-after downtown properties, according to a city staff report.

The development will feature approximately 928,000 square feet of office space, 8,400 square feet of retail space and roughly 60,000 square feet of space for the expansion of the Tech Interactive next door.

The Museum Place development is part of a larger goal by Dillabough to revitalize and transform the city’s downtown area into a destination where tech companies can thrive in downtown high-rises. In the past two years, the developer has spent about $300 million scooping up 21 separate downtown properties, including Museum Place.

“I hope you all understand that our goal is not just to develop one site,” Dillabough told the council Tuesday night. “Our goal is to help grow a vibrant, high-energy city with a great community and better quality of life for people living in the area.”

The original proposal for Museum Place, which was submitted by developer King Wah, called for an office building, hotel and residences, along with ground-floor retail and the Tech Museum expansion. When Museum Place Owner took over the property, Dillabough replaced the hotel and residential units with the new office tower.

The tower’s 60,000 square feet of space for the Tech Interactive expansion will be used by the museum to offer more classes and exhibits, provide more meeting spaces and improve the museum’s food and retail offerings, according to the staff report.

“I think we have a great opportunity here and it has been a blessing for our city to have yourself and a few other developers — especially in our downtown core — pushing the limits and challenging each other with the ability of what you can develop and do with a space,” Councilmember Raul Peralez said during the council meeting. “…This isn’t just about the tech interactive expansion and the space there, this is an expansion opportunity for our entire community.”

Despite the council’s unanimous approval, Mayor Sam Liccardo voiced concerns about a stipulation in the development agreement that would allow the developer to delay construction of the project if there was “negative growth for two consecutive quarters in the area’s Economic Growth Index.”

Liccardo argued that the vague definition of “negative growth” could cause a years-long delay in the much-anticipated project by allowing the developer to unnecessarily stop construction during a slight economic dip rather than a significant recession.

“We all want this to get to the finish line,” Liccardo said. “I just want to do it with a contract that makes some sense. And providing an exception that completely swallows the contract, doesn’t make sense.”

Dillabough, the developer, reassured the council that he was committed and wanted to find a reasonable agreement with the city. The council decided they would further discuss the stipulation in their closed-door meeting next Tuesday.

The development, which is expected to break ground next year, will be part of a greater building boom in the city’s downtown core over the next few years.

A short distance from the Museum Place site, San Jose-based Adobe Systems is expanding its three-building downtown headquarters campus by constructing an adjacent tower that is expected to nearly double the company’s workforce.

Next to Museum Place on Park Avenue, Jay Paul broke ground last month on a 19-story office tower that will total 875,000 square feet and could accommodate up to 4,400 employees.

Across the street, Jay Paul has also proposed building a massive campus that would feature three 19-story office towers. The campus is expected to total 3.4 million square feet and accommodate between 17,000 to 23,000 new employees in the city’s downtown core.

And few blocks to the west, Google’s transit-oriented development with offices, homes, stores, restaurants and parks will soon serve as the home base for 15,000 to 20,000 of the tech giant’s employees.

As many as 36,000 employees could be added to downtown San Jose once all of these office buildings are constructed — potentially doubling the 39,500 downtown office workers reported by the planning research and advocacy nonprofit organization SPUR in 2014.