Building exterior near downtown San Jose’s Guadalupe River of an office complex
proposed by Boston Properties, concept. A major real estate company is
eyeing development of a mega office campus in downtown San Jose, near the
banks of the Guadalupe River, a project that could accommodate several
thousand workers.
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Despite concerns raised by environmentalists, a paved parking lot along the banks of the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose will be supplanted with a massive new office campus where nearly 10,000 people could work.
The project, which is called the Almaden Office Project and was approved unanimously by San Jose City Council Tuesday evening, will be located on a narrow 3.75-acre property on the southwest corner of South Almaden Boulevard and Woz Way, across the river from the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose.
Designed by Boston Properties, the campus is expected to total 2.05 million square feet and feature two 16-story towers with 1.4 million square feet of office space, 37,603 square feet of ground-floor retail, 15 condominium units and three levels of underground parking. Two outdoor paseos will be incorporated in the middle of the campus to provide employees and community members with direct access between South Almaden Boulevard and the Guadalupe River Trail.
Mayor Sam Liccardo called the project an “incredible addition to our downtown skyline” and a “superior alternative to a paved parking lot.”
Some conservationists and environmental advocates, on the other hand, raised concerns that the office towers would be built too close to the Guadalupe River, potentially damaging the trees, soil and wildlife habitats along the river bank. They urged the council to request that the developer shift the towers further away from the river.
“We should not knowingly sacrifice the Guadalupe River and erode environmental protections,” said Dashiell Leeds. “We should instead protect the Guadalupe River for the living entity that it is, for the biodiversity that it sustains and for the community benefits that a healthy ecosystem provides us.”
Due to the site’s uniquely narrow footprint, city officials said pushing the project back any further would not be feasible. The city’s municipal code generally calls for a 100-foot buffer between a project and vegetation near rivers or creeks but it provides city leaders with the flexibility to allow development to encroach on that buffer in certain circumstances, including downtown development, sites of unique geometric shapes and those where the current use already lies in the buffer zone — all characteristics that fit this office campus.
“No doubt we’re having to make exceptions here,” said Councilmember Raul Peralez, “but at the same time, we’re approving something that is an overall benefit to our community.”
After hearing community feedback in recent months, Boston Properties made several modifications to the project, including creating a greater buffer between the river and the project than initially planned and reconfiguring the parking garage entrances to reduce traffic near the Guadalupe River Trail.
In addition to constructing the two office towers, Boston Properties aims to add 13,000 square feet of landscaping on the project site, which they say will result in cleaner water quality in the river and help to reduce erosion.
“With the development of our proposed project, the environmental aspects will be improved over time,” said Christina Bernardin, development project manager for Boston Properties.
Bernardin estimates that the project will bring nearly 2,000 new full-time construction jobs to the city over the course of the project’s four-year construction phase and generate $4.3 million for the city’s general fund and $6.5 million annually in property taxes for San Jose schools.
Instead of damaging the river, city officials and downtown community leaders said they saw the project as something that would help activate an underutilized portion of the river trail and provide a more inviting setting for residents and visitors.
“The project has the potential to bring new visitors to the (Guadalupe River) Park and Trail and open up opportunities for future activation and public park improvements,” said Jason Su, executive director of the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy. “The Guadalupe River Park is designated in the General Plan as a grand park and to achieve this vision, you will need projects like this to reach it.”
This campus marks the latest office project approved in downtown San Jose as part of city officials’ continued push to build up the urban core.
Just south of the Almaden Office Project, plans for two 20-story office towers totaling 1.85 million square feet have been given the green light to move forward on a 3.08-acre site near the interchange of Interstate 280 and Highway 87. Meanwhile, an office tower at 200 Park Avenue, which is later to rise 19 stories and total nearly 1 million square feet of office space, is currently under construction. And, developer Jay Paul Co. last week received a much-anticipated court ruling allowing for the construction of a modern tech campus totaling 3.6 million square feet that could bring 14,000 more jobs to the city’s downtown.
