Developer KT Urban submits plans for 20-story towers in downtown San Jose
Developer KT Urban on Monday unveiled new plans for a nearly 3 acre site at 280 Woz Way that could bring 1.8 million square of office and retail space in two 20-story towers to the city’s downtown. Rendering courtesy of C2K Architecture

Development in the Bay Area has slowed or halted entirely in recent weeks, but that hasn’t stopped developers from forging ahead.

KT Urban on Monday unveiled plans for a nearly 3-acre site at 280 Woz Way that could bring 1.8 million square feet of office and retail space across a pair of 20-story towers near the San Jose Convention Center. The developer has been mulling development options on the site for months.

Plans for the project include more than 1 million square feet of office space above 6,000 square feet of retail and 30,000 square feet of “outdoor terraces over multiple levels,” the company said.

Despite some economic experts and city officials predicting a devastating financial blow from the region’s stay at home order that has shuttered companies and relegated workers to their homes, KT Urban still sees potential in downtown San Jose, said Shawn Milligan, a partner at KT Urban

“The confluence of transit infrastructure in San Jose — BART, light rail, Rapid Bus Service, highways—which all converge downtown, is unparalleled,” he said in a statement Monday.

KT Urban is working with a familiar ally, Portland, Oregon-based C2K Architecture, which has designed several of the company’s downtown San Jose projects in recent years. Among them: Garden Gate Tower, a 27-story residential project at 600 S. First St. that was approved by the San Jose City Council last year.

The newest project aims to take advantage of the changing dynamics of San Jose’s growing downtown, Milligan said.

“With the center of downtown San Jose shifting away from Santa Clara Street, southward towards Park Avenue and closer to transit options, we see the Woz Way project as a great way to activate this area,” he said.

Indeed, major developers have zeroed in on the area, including well-known names like Jay Paul Co. and The Sobrato Organization, which are planning major redevelopments nearby. Meanwhile, developer Urban Community, which emerged in San Jose in recent years, has quickly amassed millions of dollars worth of land in the city’s downtown, including sites near KT Urban’s newest project.

Plans for the development along Woz Way include 1,215 parking spots in four levels of underground parking. KT Urban hopes to break ground on the development sometime in 2021.

Contact Janice Bitters at [email protected] or follow @JaniceBitters on Twitter.

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