San Jose’s historic St. James Park is one step closer to joining a national nonprofit’s network of outdoor music venues fashioned from neglected public spaces.
The City Council unanimously authorized negotiations Tuesday for a three-party operating agreement for the future downtown concert venue between the city, the national Levitt Foundation and Friends of Levitt Pavilion San Jose, a local nonprofit supporting the St. James Park project. In addition to the music pavilion, the reimagined park will include a picnic grove, garden and monument walks, fountain, dog park and playground.
Proponents see the agreement as a turning point in the park’s decadeslong underuse — and unlocks crucial funding for the project’s construction. The agreement’s terms commit $15 million from the city — raised through developer fees — while the local nonprofit has agreed to raise $5 million and will manage the venue for an initial five-year term, with up to three five-year extensions. The national nonprofit has pledged more than $1 million for operations and programming over the first five years.
Friends of Levitt Pavilion San Jose Board Chair Fil Maresca said his organization has hired a fundraising strategist to help close the $5 million gap. He said the ongoing negotiations will flesh out how to cover the actual costs if they end up changing.
“It could be covered by the Friends of Levitt Pavilion raising more money or by future development fees or by another major foundation. There are other ways for this to happen,” Maresca told San José Spotlight. “But we’re confident. This was a very important vote. It shows this is not just a project in a District 3 park. This is a citywide amenity.”
It marks a rare project with significant nonprofit funding, Mayor Matt Mahan said at the meeting.
“I’m not aware of another transformative project of this magnitude that’s actually this close to being within reach of our city,” he said.
The deal to build the concert venue — known as Levitt Pavilion — was supposed to be signed in 2022, until a lawsuit over impacts to the neighboring historic Sainte Claire Club building halted plans and left the city on the hook for $400,000 in legal fees.
While a state appellate court ruling found city officials ignored historic preservation rules when they approved the project’s permit, everything else about the park revamp is moving forward.
When complete, concertgoers will be able to picnic on a lawn sized to accommodate 5,000 people. In addition to 50 free, family-friendly concerts provided by the Levitt Foundation, performing arts and community groups will be able to rent the pavilion.
The developers plan on holding a partial concert season on the west side of the park during the pavilion’s construction throughout May 2026. The first full season of 50 free concerts isn’t expected until April 2027.
For more than a decade, locals have envisioned an outdoor music venue at the 7.5-acre St. James Park, turning a neglected spot into an iconic downtown destination. The park was designed in the 1800s and was once a gathering point for the Ku Klux Klan, mob lynchings and mid-century political rallies.
Levitt Foundation, a national nonprofit that has transformed 26 struggling parks across the U.S. by building outdoor live music pavilions, first partnered with San Jose in 2016 to revitalize the park.
Mahan said he hopes Levitt Pavilion can allay the notion that there’s nothing to do in the Bay Area’s largest city compared to San Francisco or Oakland.
“This would be a great reason to come downtown and spend time,” Mahan said at the meeting. “I think it has the potential to add to the urban fabric of our city and have a transformational impact.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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