Big affordable housing project in San Jose could boost micro economy
The development of 700-plus affordable homes on a San Jose land site could spur an economic upswing locally.
SAN JOSE — The development of several hundred affordable homes on empty land in San Jose could help spur economic activity in the area, real estate executives say.
The housing project site is next to the busy Topgolf sports, entertainment and dining venue, which is near the interchange of State Route 237 and North First Street.
At one point, a prior owner of the site had proposed the development of a hotel on the prime property, which is at 7 Topgolf Drive in north San Jose’s Alviso community.
The Topgolf complex, hotels and other proposals were once seen as components that would have coalesced into a lively entertainment district.
The original plans, officially announced in 2018, called for restaurants, shops, two hotels and the Topgolf complex.
Over the years, however, the Topgolf venue became the only development completed where the entertainment district had been planned.
The latest proposal for the 3.2-acre 7 Topgolf Drive site envisions a project that would produce 780 residences, all of them affordable apartments, documents on file with San Jose planners show.
Los Angeles-based LH Housing, an affordable and workforce housing developer, is the real estate firm leading the affordable housing project.
“We are revitalizing the area around the existing Topgolf that was originally planned as the centerpiece of an entertainment hub,” LH Housing said in comments the company emailed to this news organization.
The never-built entertainment district was a grandiose proposal expected to help provide an economic boom for the area.
“Our project fulfills that stalled vision,” LH Housing stated.
A housing development could be a good idea for the area, in the view of Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.
“Getting housing closer to where people will work is always a good thing,” Staedler said.
Tech campuses, including several sites owned by search giant Google dot the vicinity.
The residences in the proposed affordable housing development would be contained within eight buildings.
The apartments would be studios or one-bedroom units, according to the plans on file with city officials.
At one point, a 200-room hotel was envisioned for the site, a project that seemed like a good bet when the proposal was floated before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the start of business shutdowns in March 2020.
The economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, which hobbled the lodging and travel industries worldwide and in the Bay Area, helped to torpedo the hotel development proposal.
Eventually, the development site landed in foreclosure and an affiliate of the lender took back the empty land in 2022, paying $27.6 million to buy the property.
The project’s eight buildings are all proposed as seven-story structures. One of the buildings would have retail space on the ground floor, according to the development plans.
The project team also includes Cloud Apartments, a Bay Area company that produces factory-built modular apartments that can be snapped together at a project site. Cloud Apartments is the project manager for the site and will use the LH Housing modular apartments for the construction endeavor.
Modular projects in the past have struggled at times,” Staedler said.
Even so, what is clear is that housing at affordable prices, particularly for the middle-class workforce, continues to be in short supply in the Bay Area.
“Housing dispersed throughout San Jose should be the goal,” Staedler said. “Alviso and north San Jose will benefit from more housing.”