Big housing, retail tower proposed in downtown San Jose

SAN JOSE — A big housing and retail tower is being eyed in downtown San Jose, a complex that would bring the area hundreds of new student residential units.

Spartan Heights, a 316-unit residential development, would also include 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to documents on file with San Jose city planners.

The 23-story tower would be built at North Fourth and East St. John streets. The planning documents indicate that Brent Lee, a Saratoga-based realty investor, and San Jose-based development company Republic Urban are working together to gain approval of the project.

“There is demand for more student housing and this is just a few blocks from San Jose State University,” said Konstantin Voronin, land acquisition director with Republic Urban. “It seems like San Jose State plans to continue growing.”

Demand for housing, already at frenzied levels, could intensify in the next few years as companies increase staffing in downtown San Jose.

Google plans to develop a transit-oriented village of office buildings, stores, restaurants, homes and parks near the Diridon train station where 25,000 could work, including 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees.

San Jose-based Adobe intends to expand its three-building headquarters campus downtown by adding a fourth office tower at an adjacent site.

Adobe recently revealed to this news organization that the fourth tower will be bigger than what the company first envisioned. Adobe expanded the tower’s scope so it can employ 4,000 in the new high rise, a big jump from the initial plans for 3,000 workers.

“It appears we can’t build enough housing to meet demand,” said Mark Ritchie, president of San Jose-based Ritchie Commercial, a real estate brokerage.

Plus, numerous students are living in multi-family homes in the area, Voronin said.

“When Google, Adobe and others expand downtown those workers will likely displace the students now in multi-family housing,” Voronin said. “Spartan Heights will be designated for San Jose State student housing.”

The one-acre property at 100 N. Fourth St. slated for the Spartan Heights project now is vacant and is being used primarily for surface parking.

Erik Schoennauer, a San Jose-based land use and planning consultant, successfully convinced the City Council to expand the boundaries of downtown San Jose to include this site. Had the site not been folded into the downtown zoning area, single-family housing would have dominated the property. Now, it’s possible to build a tower in an urban setting.

“Fourth Street has always been an integral part of the downtown core,” Schoennauer said. “It makes sense that both sides of Fourth Street should have dense urban development. This is walking distance to the future BART station, to light rail, to most of downtown and to the university.”

If the city approves the project, Republic Urban anticipates it will purchase the property by early 2020 and then develop the site.

“There is a real argument for housing of all kinds downtown,” Voronin said. “We need housing for all income levels, tech workers, professionals, people with middle- and low-income, students, homeless.”

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