San Jose’s City Council green lit 3 major Downtown building projects

Here are the projects the Council green lit:

The Orchard

• Developers: Westbank, Urban Community
• Location: 409 and 425 S. 2nd St. at the corner of East San Salvador Street in the city’s SoFA district.
• Description: A 30-story, mixed use tower with 540 residences; 7,430 square feet of ground floor retail space; 7,497 square feet of co-working space; 6,141 square feet of amenity space; and a four-story underground parking garage.
• Notes: The development would result in the demolition of the closed Bo Town restaurant building. But as part of the project, Westbank would build a new restaurant space on the site that would have a similar design as Bo Town but be incorporated into the new building. As part of a broader project, Westbank has proposed to build a pair of office buildings of similar design one block north at 345 S. 2nd St.

Icon/Echo

• Developer: Urban Catalyst
• Location: 147 E. Santa Clara St., 49-95 N. 4th St. and 128 E. St. John St.
• Description: Echo is a 27-story tower with 415 residences. Icon is a 24-story office building with 525,000 square feet of office space and 8,500 square feet of ground-floor retail space.
• Notes: Located kitty-corner from City Hall and across Fourth Street from The Miro apartment buildings, the project raised some controversy because it won’t have any affordable housing on-site and would not conform to the design guidelines of the St. James Square City Landmark in which it would be built. Urban Catalyst representatives have said the developer plans to pay a $20 million in-lieu fee instead of including affordable housing.

SuZaCo

• Developer: Bayview Development Group
• Location: 142-150 and 130-134 E. Santa Clara St. and 17 S. 4th St.
• Description: A u-shaped office building that would range from four to six stories and would contain 75,285 square feet of commercial space, including 6,345 feet of retail space.
• Notes: Located across Fourth Street from City Hall, the building would result in the demolition of a pair of two story buildings at 17 S. 4th St. and 130-134 E. Santa Clara St. As part of the project, Bayview would also knock down the southeast facade, the roof and the interior of 142-150 E. Santa Clara St., the site of the recently closed 4th St. Pizza Co. restaurant. Bayview would preserve the northwest and northeast facades of that building; its structure — a modern, glass enclosed mass timber edifice — would be constructed largely above them.