Sharks say projects may force SAP Center exit
SAN JOSE >> The San Jose Sha rks on T hursday raised concerns about being forced out of the SAP Center in the city’s downtown because of plans for massive development projects near the sports complex and Diridon train station.
“We definitely do not want to leave,” Jonathan Becher, president of Sharks Sports & Entertainment, said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group on Thursday. “This is our home. This is where we want to be. Leaving is the last resort. But it could come to that if the arena becomes unviable.”
The Sharks, in an open letter to fans and supporters on Thursday, said it has become increasingly alarmed that the proposals for the development of an array of projects on the western edges of downtown San Jose could imperil the future of the Sharks in the Bay Area’s largest city.
Google plans a transitoriented development of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, entertainment hubs, cultural centers, and parks near the Diridon Station and the SAP complex that is known as Downtown West. More development is planned for areas adjacent to the Downtown West footprint.
The warning from the Sharks could shove city officials onto a tightrope as they attempt to balance the needs of the city’s only major sports team and the municipality’s quest to dramatically revitalize the city’s small downtown district.
The city of San Jose has an existing partnership with the San Jose Sharks and an existing agreement related to parking for the SAP Center.
“Google is not the bad guy here,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “The problem is the city’s inability to find a win-win solution.”
The primary concerns for the Sharks:
• Street network access
• Parking difficulties
• Construction impacts Daily vehicle trips in the SAP Center area now number 19,200. The development projects eyed in the vicinity could cause those trips to mushroom to 136,600 daily trips — a head-spinning increase of seven times as much as today.
“It will be harder to get a parking space in downtown San Jose than is the case in San Francisco,” Becher said. “We are worried that we are being squeezed out and at some point, the arena becomes a non-viable place for people to visit safely,” Becher said.
Yet the Sharks aren’t anti- development about all of this.
“We support redevelopment in the Diridon neighborhood and San Jose in general,” Becher said. “Having more people downtown, more restaurants, more bars, more office buildings, those are all good for an arena.”
The Sharks insist the team wants to remain in downtown San Jose.
“We are so optimistic we can work this out,” Becher said. “We want this to be our home. We could be forced to go somewhere else, but not because we want to leave.”