San Jose project adds towers in SoFA district
SAN JOSE >> A big mixeduse development of residential towers, a market, and restaurants slated to bring modern buildings to downtown San Jose’s hip and bustling SoFA district will also preserve the wellknown Bo Town restaurant building.
The Orchard, a project proposed by a real estate alliance of global mega-developer Westbank and local developer Gary Dillabough, would dramatically transform a choice section of the South First Area, or SoFA, a trendy district of restaurants, nightlife, theaters, and entertainment venues in downtown San Jose.
Multiple towers, homes, offices, restaurants, shops, public spaces, and entertainment sites are expected to be part of the eye-catching new development that will bring wide-ranging changes to a key section of downtown San Jose.
Yet the project, which is dubbed The Orchard, is also taking great care to preserve the Bo Town Seafood restaurant building, a long-shuttered dining site at 409 S. Second St. that is being retained by the development venture.
“A quintessential, midcentury restaurant structure stands at the corner of San Salvador Street and South Second Street, with an iconic folded roof and Populuxe, space age-inspired elements” is how a vision book being circulated by Westbank describes the Bo Town building.
The project is being built on what is known as the Valley Title site at 300 S. First Street and the Bo Town restaurant property at 409 South Second. The development fronts on East San Carlos Street, South First Street, South Second Street as well as on both sides of San Salvador Street near Second Street.
Westbank and Dillabough have proposed wide-ranging development and redevelopment projects at five key sites in downtown San Jose.
The largest canvas on which the two developers propose to paint a new vision for the city’s urban heart is the Valley Title lot, and the Bo Town property on the other side of San Salvador Street.
“The two properties will be entitled separately but they will live and breathe like one big community,” said Andrew Jacobson, head of development for Westbank’s San Jose initiative.
The Valley Title and Bo Town projects appear to be a blend of striking new towers as well as the preservation of key buildings.
Westbank has crafted a plan to build high-rise residences next to Bo Town.
“The residential building adopts an L-shaped plan that not only celebrates the heritage of the existing building roof but also maximizes the efficiency” of the new development, Westbank stated in its vision book that it circulated to real estate brokers.
The Orchard development also is being fashioned to create areas that would benefit the historic California Theater, built nearly a century ago in 1927 as a movie and vaudeville palace and now a venue for performing arts as well as events.
“We want to figure out how to celebrate the California Theater, how to celebrate this SoFA neighborhood,” Jacobson said.
Directly across from the main South First Street entrance to the California Theater, Westbank and Dillabough have envisioned a wooden structure that would be a primary gateway into The Orchard development.
“The idea is that as you come out of the California Theater, you are looking at lush greenery, a public space,” Jacobson said.
One of the visual concepts that Westbank has circulated shows an “Orchard Market” sign at the development’s gateway on South First Street.
“We will incorporate a very interesting and largescale food concept to really tie in the whole street level of that block and have that grow into the office component of The Orchard,” Jacobson said. “There will be a timber component to this public space.”
Westbank and Dillabough have dubbed the development The Orchard because they hope to use trees and other vegetation and greenery to celebrate the agricultural origins of what is now Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara Valley was once known as “The Valley of Heart’s Delight” due to its now-vanished thousands of acres of blooming trees and orchards.
The Orchard project also is being crafted to bolster the modern entertainment and activity district in downtown San Jose’s SoFA.
“A lush, landscaped plaza provides a public forecourt and shaded gathering space for theatergoers while framing the iconic, historic façade in a dynamic, architectural dialogue of old and new,” Westbank stated.
The new plaza would connect directly to the themes of San Jose’s SoFA.
“This public forecourt acts as a new urban stage within the arts district allowing for public performances, film festivals, and art displays,” Westbank stated.