Former Fry's site to become housing
Choice property would include more than 100 affordable homes as part of a huge development
More than 100 affordable homes are slated to become part of a huge housing development at a former Fry's Electronics site in San Jose where 1,000-plus residences could ultimately be built, city files show.
The prospect for affordable housing at the choice site in North San Jose was contained in the details for the application to develop the property, which this news organization obtained from the San Jose Planning Department.
The development would sprout at the site of a former Fry's Electronics big-box store and corporate headquarters at 550 E. Brokaw Road.
The residential project now being floated at San Jose City Hall marks a pivot for the site's owners, who have ditched their plans to build a vast tech campus totaling millions of square feet on the 19.7-acre property located near the interchange of Interstate 880 and East Brokaw Road.
The tech industry's move to significantly scale back its appetite for new office space in the Bay Area, including Silicon Valley, has made speculative office projects a much less feasible proposition.
Bay West Development, which had proposed an office campus with up to 2 million square feet of office space on the Fry's site, is now instead pushing forward with a proposal to build residences.
Two possibilities for residential development have emerged, according to the newly disclosed details in the preliminary plans on file at City Hall. Regardless, hundreds of apartments could sprout on the site.
One option calls for 1,233 units, consisting of 982 market-rate residences and 247 affordable units. Units for low-income and very-lowincome people would be included in the affordable housing units. The 1,233 units would potentially be multifamily apartments.
The other option would include 519 units,
consisting of 414 marketrate units and 104 affordable residences. This version also includes units for low-income and verylow-income people. Town homes would be included in this version.
The plan with 1,233 apartments would consist of four buildings, each with one pool and multiple courtyards, the proposals show. The buildings would contain 290, 302, 310 and 331 units, respectively.
The proposal with 519 units would consist of 322 apartments, 135 three-story town homes and 62 singlefamily homes, according to the preliminary planning documents.
The 550 E. Brokaw property
is the former location of the legendary consumer electronics retailer's Mayan temple-themed store, along with the headquarters and large warehouse facilities.
Fry's Electronics went out of business for good in February 2021.
Separately, Supermicro Computers has leased 124,200 square feet of warehouse space in one of the buildings that eventually would be demolished for the housing development.
The length of the Supermicro lease wasn't clear.
What is clear, however, is if the housing is built, the warehouse has only a temporary shelf life.
“The major physical alterations outlined in this preliminary application include the complete demolition of existing improvements and redevelopment of the site for residential uses,” Bay West Development states in its proposal.