Former San Jose hotel houses 700 college students

Hundreds of college students will soon be able to call downtown San Jose home, thanks to the quick renovations of a historic hotel.

Spartan Village on the Paseo, formerly the south tower of the Signia by Hilton hotel, will house roughly 700 San Jose State University students beginning this fall semester. About 120 beds will be partly subsidized through an $89 million state grant. Regular room prices for double, triple and quad-style rooms range from $7,520 to $9,562 with dining passes for the fall semester, according to the building’s website. Amenities include a gym, entertainment center, gaming room and on-site dining.

All rooms have been rented with students moving into the 11-story residence at 170 S. Market St. tomorrow, just minutes from the university.

The housing came together in under a year as a partnership between SJSU and privately-owned real estate investment firm Throckmorton Partners. Throckmorton Partners bought the south tower for $73.1 million last year and spent $40 million on renovations, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The university is leasing the property and has agreed to purchase the south tower after about two years for $165 million.

SJSU President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said student housing on campus has a long waitlist, so additional housing is necessary, especially so close to the university.

“This is one of the jewels in the crown of San Jose,” she told San José Spotlight. “It’s a historic project of national significance in terms of being a national model for urban student living.”

The project began last year, when the San Jose City Council unanimously approved the deal between SJSU and the Signia by Hilton, formerly known as the Fairmont Hotel, to sell off about a third of the hotel’s 705 guest rooms for student housing. It hit a few road bumps along the way, which state Sen. Dave Cortese helped smooth out by authoring a bill that prohibited the state fire marshal from have authority over the project and instead gave the responsibilities to the California State University office of fire safety.

The housing comes at a time when university tuition keeps rising, making it difficult for students to live independently, Associated Student Government President Ariana Lacson, a senior studying biomedical engineering, said. As someone whose family has almost been forced to move due to a lack of affordability, Lacson said housing like this should be a priority for the university.

“No student should worry about having a roof over their heads,” she told San José Spotlight.
San Jose ranked No. 1 on a national list for hiring the most new college graduates. The San Jose metro area, which includes the cities of San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, outpaced other major U.S. metro areas, according to a May 2023 report by Gusto, a payroll and HR software company.

The study found San Jose had the highest increase in new graduate hiring on average at 9.6% from April 2022-23, ahead of other major cities like Houston at 8.5%, New York City at 8% and Miami at 7.9%. The report found that while San Jose was the sole area nationally to offer new grads a six-figure salary at an average of $102,839, that number plummeted to an average salary of $57,580 when adjusted for living expenses.

Councilmember Omar Torres, whose district is home to the south tower, said the loss of revenue from the hotel rooms will be replaced by the vibrancy the students bring. He said he did not have such nice housing when he attended SJSU and said the housing will help underserved students.

“This means a lot to our San Jose State students, many of who are first generation students at a college,” he said at a news conference. “First gen students are going to be able to live here, play here, work here, spend money here.”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on Twitter.