Big ‘carousel’ village plan undergoes a revamp
Mixed-use development project will include homes, shops, restaurants, plaza
SAN JOSE >> A big mixed-use village in southwest San Jose has received a revamp and tweaked approach that will include housing as well as commercial uses — and the preservation of a well-known carousel sign.
A fourth plan emerged this week for a complete redevelopment of San Jose’s Cambrian Park Plaza, a neighborhood retail center whose most distinctive feature is a rotating carousel sign.
Affordable homes, senior homes, townhouses and apartments, shops, restaurants, a hotel and a big main plaza are the key components of the redevelopment effort, according to information about the project that San Jose City Council member Pam Foley released this week.
The carousel will be preserved in a prominent fashion within the project.
The redevelopment is pushing ahead even in the wake of Kimco
Realty’s deal to buy Weingarten Realty Investors in a deal that enables Kimco to own all of Weingarten’s assets and properties
— including the Cambrian Park Plaza development site.
“Kimco has retained the team from Weingarten to continue to lead the revitalization of the Cambrian Park Plaza,” Council member Foley wrote in a web post. “This project is still moving forward, and the new owner continues to fine-tune their project.”
In a new set of plans, the Kimco-Weingarten team has agreed to redesign and revamp the project so that the construction of some three-story houses wouldn’t occur next to a cluster of existing single-family homes that border the project site.
“This positive change was made to mitigate the negative impact to these neighbors,” Foley wrote in her post. “With this most recent submittal, we can confirm that our request was addressed and approved by the owner.”
The shift of the location of the proposed houses is deemed to be a benefit for the residents of the existing houses on a street called Bercaw Lane.
“The new three-story homes, for the most part, will be adjacent to commercial buildings or multistory, single-family homes,” Foley said.
Affordable homes now likely will become part of the development, although these plans have yet to be fully crafted.
“Our office is requesting that the applicant build at least some affordable housing onsite,” Council member Foley stated.
The developer is agreeable to the notion of affordable residences as part of the project.
“The applicant is still developing their affordable housing plan and will be submitting their intentions to the Planning Department when completed under a separate, future submittal,” Foley said.
Weingarten’s proposal includes plans for:
• Public open spaces totaling 6-plus acres, including a community plaza and a central park with an amphitheater.
• Mixed uses of residential and commercial spaces, consisting of 305 podium apartments built atop 60,000 square feet of commercial and retail space, located next to a community plaza with underground parking. The building would be six stories high.
• A 229-room, five-story hotel with underground parking and outdoor restaurant decks facing the central park.
• Assisted senior living totaling 165,000 square feet that will be connected to the central park, four to five stories high.
“The Cambrian Park Plaza development is an extremely important project for this part of San Jose,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use consultancy. “Ensuring a thoughtful development that doesn’t reduce the livability of the existing community should be credited to Councilmember Foley.
“She did a great job on community outreach and listening to community concerns.”
Weingarten Realty paid $49 million for the property in 2015, Santa Clara County property documents show. The developer has engaged in a multiyear approval process with the city.
“We have created an innovative new Signature Project for Cambrian, a truly mixed-use village which will become the heart of the community,” according to a previous web post by Weingarten.