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 modern new office campus where nearly 10,000 people could work.
The Almaden Office Project, approved unanimously Tuesday evening by the San Jose City Council, will rise from a narrow 3.75-acre parcel 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, giving employees and the public 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.”
But some conservationists and environmental advocates raised concerns that the office towers would be built too close to the Guadalupe River, potentially damaging the trees, soil and wildlife habitat along the river bank. They urged the council to have the developer build the towers farther away from the river.
“We should not knowingly sacrifice the Guadalupe River and erode environmental protections,” Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter representative Dashiell Leeds said. “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.”
Because of the site’s narrow footprint, however, city officials said pushing the buildings back any farther 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, although it gives city leaders the flexibility to let development encroach on that buffer in certain circumstances. Exceptions can be made for downtown developments, sites with unique geometric shapes and sites currently used in buffer zones — all characteristics that apply to this office campus.
“No doubt we’re having to make exceptions here,” Councilmember Raul Peralez said, “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 larger 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 it says will improve the river’s water quality 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 the project will bring nearly 2,000 unionized construction jobs to the city over the course of its four-year construction phase and generate $4.3 million a year in taxes for the city and $6.5 million for San Jose schools.
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 the city’s 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 proceed on a 3.08-acre site near the interchange of Interstate 280 and Highway 87. Meanwhile, a 19-story office tower at 200 Park Ave. with almost 1 million square feet of office space is under construction. And, developer Jay Paul Co. last week received a much-anticipated court ruling allowing it to construct a tech campus totaling 3.6 million square feet that could bring 14,000 more jobs to the city’s downtown.
