The Sobrato Organization has submitted a formal application to San Jose to remake a prime downtown parking lot in the heart of the city into a glassy new tower geared toward tech tenants. Market Street Towers, a proposed 19-story tower that appears from the outside to be four separate towers of varying heights, is expected...
Google pairs up with developer on Bay Area housing commitment
Mere weeks after Google unveiled a $1 billion commitment to help spur new housing development and preserve existing affordable homes in the Bay Area, the tech titan has partnered with a real estate developer to bring some of that housing to fruition. Sydney, Australia-based Lendlease Corp. has made a formal agreement with Google to help...
Will Jay-Z help bring cannabis equity to San Jose or is Caliva just blowing smoke?
San Jose’s cannabis industry has a diversity problem that starts at its highest levels. In a city where nearly six-out-of-ten residents are non-white, 14 of its 16 dispensaries have white owners and many of those have a mostly white workforce. So when Caliva, the cannabis dispensary in San Jose that boasts its number-one-in-the-nation status, announced...
Ex-mayor Tom McEnery to revive old Manny’s Cellar space
A popular and colorful part of San Jose’s history — a historic basement once known as Manny’s Cellar — is set to get a new life under a plan by a prominent local developer. Tom McEnery, onetime San Jose mayor and the developer behind the bustling San Pedro Square Market food hall, is working out...
San Jose’s Oakridge Mall lands new gaming tenant GameWorks
San Jose is months from getting the Bay Area’s only GameWorks, a gaming and entertainment venue, set to open at the Westfield Oakridge mall this winter. The announcement comes as big-box retailers and malls in the Bay Area and across the country look to catch up and adjust with consumer tastes that increasingly favor experiences...
Big tech company to move HQ from Sunnyvale to San Jose
Rambus Inc. is moving its headquarters from its longtime home in Sunnyvale to North San Jose, making it the latest in a long list of tech companies to look southward for office space as commercial vacancy rates tighten along the Peninsula and San Jose continues to grow. The longtime Silicon Valley tech company, which makes...
Valley Fair owner aims to go green on shopping center overhaul
When the newly-expanded Valley Fair Mall comes online next year, the busy shopping center will not only be bigger, but greener, according to the mall owners, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, known as URW. Valley Fair, which sits on the border of San Jose and Santa Clara, is currently undergoing a $1.1 billion expansion and renovation and is one...
8×8 will move HQ from San Jose to Campbell, expand throughout Bay Area
When searching for its new headquarters, a major San Jose-based tech company decided to go west. Cloud Communication Company 8×8 has leased nearly 178,000 square feet in Campbell and have started looking for more office space throughout the Bay Area and elsewhere, company officials said Monday. After a monthslong search for a new headquarters space,...
Tech companies buoy property assessments, appeals in Santa Clara County
This year, the Santa Clara County assessment roll, which determines property taxes in Silicon Valley, hit a staggering $516 billion, buoyed by major tech companies buying land and opening major office campuses in the South Bay. But that number comes with a caveat: Many of the same tech titans propping up the assessment roll also...
Silicon Valley chambers of commerce rebuff new rebranded group
When the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce last month announced it would expand its reach and reinvent itself as the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce, the news was met with a mix of reactions, primarily skepticism and confusion from other chambers. And at least two of those chambers in Silicon Valley told San José...