SAN JOSE — A new 22-story residential tower and retail space are being planned for downtown San Jose, a development that aims to help revive a decaying stretch of South First Street in the city’s urban core.

The Bader Family, the site’s owner, and Alterra Worldwide, the developer, are seeking city permits that would enable them to bulldoze a commercial building and then prepare the site for construction. After the site has been cleared, a mixed-use housing and retail tower would rise at 27 S. First St. downtown, San Jose planning documents show.

“This development is a critical component to revitalizing the Fountain Alley area of First and Second streets,” said Erik Schoennauer, a principal executive and partner with Schoennauer Co., a planning and development consultancy. “The city of San Jose has been trying to do that for decades.”

The development envisions 350 residential units and about 5,100 square feet of ground-floor retail.

This proposal is the latest in a series of new residential, office, retail and restaurant developments that are being contemplated, or have been launched, in downtown San Jose. What’s more, investors have been paying handsome prices in recent months for numerous properties, including office towers, residential high rises and hotels in the downtown area of the nation’s 10th-largest city.

The development, currently marketed as 27West, would be a tall, slender building on a site once occupied by a Ross Dress for Less store. In 2016, the same year the discount apparel retailer opened a store in north San Jose, Dublin-based Ross shuttered its downtown San Jose location. Since then, the site has been revived as an artist’s hub known as Local Color that features performances, arts and crafts.

“This is a higher and better use for this site,” said Mark Ritchie, president of San Jose-based Ritchie Commercial, a realty brokerage. “It’s a little daunting, to have a high rise in an older historical area. But it will help with the transformation of this block.”

Across the street, Gary Dillabough and partners that include space-sharing upstart WeWork, are actively pushing ahead with a wide-ranging revitalization and renovation of the iconic Bank of Italy building. To bolster the revival of the historic office tower, Dillabough has been assembling multiple properties near the corners of South First and East Santa Clara streets, as well as South Second and East Santa Clara streets.

“If you put together what we are trying to do, along with the plans for the Bank of Italy building, the former Walgreen’s building, you can start to see a significant transformation for this block of First Street,” Schoennauer said. “We need to get more people into the downtown, and putting in 350 units of residential and new retail spaces will be a key component to activating the street.”

Several blocks away, Google has proposed a transit-oriented community of offices, residences, retail, restaurants and amenities where the search giant could eventually employ 15,000 to 20,000 of its workers in a development integrated with nearby neighborhoods.

Also nearby, Adobe Systems intends to expand its three-building downtown San Jose campus by adding a fourth office tower across the street from its current headquarters.

All of this activity has encouraged the 27West developers, who hope to begin construction by the end of this year and complete the residential tower in 2020, according to Schoennauer.

“The current and planned growth and development in downtown San Jose is a significant factor in the decision to make a large investment with this project,” Schoennauer said.