Huge complex eyed near Google village

More than 750 homes, including hundreds of affordable residences, have been proposed for large downtown site

SAN JOSE » A big residential complex that would add more than 700 homes — including hundreds of affordable units — to downtown San Jose is being planned a stone’s throw from Google’s proposed transit village.

The proposed housing complex would be located near Park Avenue and McEvoy Street, which is close to the western edges of the sites where Google is planning a transit- oriented development.

“This project is on the other side of the Caltrain tracks but really just a block from some of the Google properties,” said Scott

Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association.

A total of 762 residential units are envisioned, according to the proposals on file with San Jose city planners. Included in that total: 330 affordable units, the city planning documents show.

The project would replace multiple one- and two- story office, commercial and industrial buildings on the south side of Park Avenue, according to a survey of the neighborhood by this news organization.

The addresses where the housing development would rise include 205 and 214 Dupont St. and 226, 244 and 254 McEvoy St., city planning documents show.

Just on the other side of the train tracks from the project, Google plans a development that would be a game changer for San Jose.

If it’s built, Google’s transit village, known as Downtown West, would dramatically transform a district that has slumbered while lively new restaurants, nightspots and shops have sprouted in the downtown’s core area and the nearby Santana Row and Valley Fair centers.

Google’s proposal calls for office buildings, homes, hotel facilities, shops, restaurants, entertainment sites, cultural hubs and open spaces — where the tech titan would employ 25,000 people.

Yet the proposal from the

search giant is far from the only activity that is beginning to take shape in this section of downtown San Jose.

Down the street from the newly proposed residential development, Jay Paul Co. has started construction on a new office tower.

And Adobe, in a quest for more elbow room in downtown San Jose, is constructing a new office tower at 333 W. San Fernando St. that would dramatically expand the size of the cloud services giant’s current three- building headquarters campus.

These and other projects that could potentially create enough office space for thousands of new workers would ratchet up the demand for places to live near these future job hubs.

“Housing demand has been increasing exponentially,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “We have to be sure that all the development in the Diridon Station area is cohesive. Google should be the measuring stick for quality.”

The newly proposed residential development at Park and McEvoy would include multiple midrise buildings, according to concept images that are on file with the city’s Planning Department.

The planned housing complex also would help expand the boundaries of what observers have come to traditionally view as downtown San Jose, Knies said.

“It pushes the new Downtown West district further west,” Knies said.