BART project command center lands in unexpected location
VTA leases office space outside of downtown for a good reason, official says
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority has leased offices near San Jose International Airport that will serve as the command center to oversee a complex four- station extension of the BART line in the San Jose area.
The VTA decision to lease space near the airport raised some eyebrows, because the offices aren’t located in downtown San Jose. Wide-ranging disruptions are anticipated with construction of a long underground section of the BART line that will link to the busy Diridon Station transit hub in the city’s urban core.
“We conducted an extensive search for office space that meets our requirements,” said Ron Golem, VTA’s deputy director for real estate and joint development. “We leased space in two separate buildings” in the Gateway Place complex near San Jose airport.
The VTA leased offices in the 2033 Gateway Place building and the 2099 Gateway Place building, Golem said. Hudson Pacific owns the office complex, which is a few minutes from the San Jose airport and across the street from a Doubletree hotel.
The offices will effectively become the nerve center for up to 170 people who will supervise and handle various elements of the rail extension project to create four new BART stations, officially known as the BART Phase 2 project for the South Bay. The future stations in this phase will be Alum Rock/28th Street; two downtown San Jose stops, including one at Diridon Station; and a Santa Clara station.
“By being at the airport area, we are saving a considerable amount of money on office space, which means we can reinvest more money in the BART Phase 2 project,” Golem said.
Mark Ritchie, a veteran commercial real estate executive, criticized the VTA decision, saying, “The optics of being out at
“We are saving ourselves a couple of million dollars compared to what we would have spent over the course of the lease had we been downtown in Class A offices. Andwe will have excellent access to all four stations.”
— Ron Golem, VTA deputy director
the San Jose airport are terrible.”
Ritchie, who is president of realty firm Ritchie Commercial, also suggested the VTA wanted to avoid being located near construction of the BART tunnel being built beneath the streets and pavements of San Jose.
“VTA didn’t want to be around all that construction, because they know how disruptive it will be,” Ritchie said. “They should have been in downtown San Jose, so they could see the project as it unfolds.”
Golem, however, countered that the airport location makes sense because the best downtown off ice leasing options were too costly and future offices will be convenient distances from all the phase 2 extension train station sites.
“We are saving ourselves a couple of million dollars compared to what we would have spent over the course of the lease had we been downtown in Class A offices,” Golem said. “And we will have excellent access to all four stations.”
The VTA has a downtown office at 55 E. Santa Clara St. and will set up a new location once the construction begins to provide information about the BART extensions.
“We have a presence downtown now, and we will have an information center where we will engage people about the project, so they learn what is going on, know when there are meetings,” Golem said. “We will have a downtown presence throughout the Phase 2 project.”