Creative offices planned for prime San Jose site
Changes would reshape key stretch downtown
A dramatic revamp of a prime site in downtown San Jose has begun to take shape as a project that will bring creative offices to the property, yet also oust existing tenants ahead of the wide-ranging redevelopment.
Paseo Place is poised to reshape a key stretch of downtown San Jose that fronts on South First Street, Paseo de San Antonio and South Second Street, according to project developer Hines, a veteran and savvy developer with a global reach.
“We look forward to reinvigorating this property with a mix of dynamic uses,” Texas-based Hines said in comments emailed to this news organization.
At present, the building's primary uses are a data center along with ground-floor retail and restaurants. The building at 150 South First Street totals 179,800 square feet. The data center contains 121,200 square feet, the retail is 41,900 square feet and the office spaces total 9,700 square feet.
Hines has begun to craft a dramatic reimagining of the building, documents filed with San Jose city planners show.
“The project consists of a change of use from a data center to a creative office with a new activated roof amenity,” Hines stated in a summary of its proposal to city planners.
A creative office center could cater to tech companies that seek a vibrant new workspace in downtown San Jose. A fresh crop of groundfloor shops and restaurants could invigorate the stretch of Paseo de San Antonio that runs between South First Street and South Second Street.
“Hines has every intention to keep the ground floor as retail and restaurant space,” said James Chung, principal executive with The Econic Company, a commercial real estate firm. “They are reimagining the retail to be congruent with everything happening around it.”
Among the changes that are occurring that could spur a revival along Paseo de San Antonio: the complete redevelopment of the long shuttered Camera 12 movie theaters, which is being revamped as a new retail, restaurant and office complex with an array of lively streetlevel uses across the paseo from the Hines project.
“Hines is very much excited about the project and completely intends to retain ground-floor retail and restaurants,” Chung said.
But plenty of pain has emerged for the current merchants on the project's street level.
Several tenants on the ground floor of the data center have shut their doors because it appears the entire building is slated to be closed as the redevelopment gears up.
Empty storefronts on the building's ground floor create a forlorn line of spaces along South First Street, Paseo de San Antonio and South Second Street in downtown San Jose.
Nox Cookie Bar has posted a sign on its front door on the Second Street side of the building that explained why the dessert place decided to decamp to Campbell and close its downtown San Jose operation after five years.
“The pending closure of this entire building in early 2023 caused us to not renew our lease,” the Nox Cookie Bar sign stated, as seen on Feb. 2. “We have served our last cookie at this store.”
A sign on the Mas Pizza door on Paseo de San Antonio described the restaurant's departure.
“We are permanently closed,” the Mas Pizza sign stated. “We apologize. Thank you for supporting us.”
Yet the vision that Hines has advanced is one that points to future vibrancy.
“New storefront retail as well as modern office and R&D space that leverages the existing data center infrastructure” are the key components for the project, Hines stated.
“Hines wants to create amenities for the office and they want to reactivate the Paseo,” Chung said. “Between the Hines project and the Urban Catalyst project, there is momentum to create a special corridor with a lot of foot traffic.”