Welcome
to the Downtown San Jose Office Opportunities e-letter!
This e-letter contains information from the San Jose Redevelopment Agency
and the City of San Jose's Office of Economic Development.
Questions or comments? Contact Start-up@ci.sj.ca.us
Software
Companies Talk About Being In Downtown San Jose
Teja Technologies
David Stepner, CEO of Teja Technologies
(located at 2 W, Santa Clara), believes Downtown San Jose is a great place
for Teja and others in the software development industry. He says, "San
Jose shouldn't be overlooked as a place to start and grow a software company.
Downtown has many advantages. Our location is an attribute
in employee recruitment. We are a short walking distance from
numerous restaurants, parking is not the issue many content, and we enjoy
the urban feel of downtown. Also, Downtown is really the only
place in Silicon Valley where Bay Area public transit
comes together. Our employees live all over the Bay Area (including
the East Bay), and regardless of the direction, Downtown is a reasonable,
if not great, commute."
PDF
Solutions
Tom
Cobourn, Vice President at PDF Solutions: "When PDF's 8 employees
moved to the Bay Area in 1996, we were interested in a location that would
provide an urban atmosphere and Class A office
space. It would also need to serve PDF long term. Since then, PDF has
grown to be the leading provider of process-design integration technologies
to enhance IC manufacturability, and employs over 250 people worldwide.
PDF's headquarters in Downtown San Jose, 333 W. San Carlos
Street, has all along provided the desired working environment for PDF
to serve its customers."
Office Space that
Fits Start-Up Needs
Statistics show that software
has been the fastest growing sector in Silicon Valley. The average size of
these companies is 17 employees. Finding office space in an urban environment
can be challenging for small companies because office developers/managers
are frequently hesitant to divide up floor plates.
Fortunately, San Jose is the kind of place where an entrepreneurial spirit is rewarded. Below is a partial list of downtown office buildings for which there are opportunities to divide up or creatively share floor space to accommodate start-ups, or other small companies.
| Address | Class Type | Square Feet Avail. | Broker Contact |
| 225 W Santa Clara | A | 1,793-6,619 | Lucinda Lawson, 282-3800 |
| 60 S Market | A | 1,878-5,539 | Mike Grado, |
| 333 W San Carlos | A | 1,501-5,929 | Mike Grado, 453-7409 |
| 50 W San Fernando | A | 5,938 | David Buccholz, 282-3843 |
| 2 N First | B | 200-8,000 | Jim Robbins, 938-3921** |
| 109 Park Center Plaza | B | 800 | Susan Gregory, 282-3940 |
| 40 S Market | B | 1,775 | Dale Green, 441-9051 |
| 55 S Market | B | 1,231-7,419 | Reed Payne, 819-3934 |
| 95 S Market | B | 870-2,245 | Egan Kingston, 971-2700 |
| 39-41 Post | C | 730 | Egan Kingston, 971-2700 |
| 84 W Santa Clara | C | 575-3,000 | Egan Kingston, 971-2700 |
**Software Business Cluster -- a software incubator and incredible opportunity to share office space, expertise, and network!
Businesses located in central San Jose are in the Enterprise Zone, and can qualify for thousands of dollars in special tax credits and other incentives from the California Franchise Tax Board. Enterprise Zone incentives include employment tax credits and cost savings on the purchase of computer equipment. San Jose has the only Enterprise Zone in Silicon Valley. For more details see www.sjeconomy.com or contact the City of San Jose Office of Economic Development at
277-5880.
Downtown
San Jose Lifestyle
Downtown
San Jose is transforming and exciting urban environment for working, playing,
living, and starting companies! If you haven't visited recently, then you're
overdue for day of exploration and an evening of fun and relaxation. Some
facts to get you ready:
Downtown: Software Campus
-Headquarters for Adobe Systems, Agile, Dejima, and more.
-Resources abound for collaboration and networking, including the Software
Business Cluster, Software Development Forum, San Jose State University, Entrepreneur
Center, Environmental Business Cluster, and International Business Cluster.
-A campus like no other, Downtown San Jose has great restaurants, parks, an
independent movie theater, museums, a variety of housing, exercise gyms, evening
public concerts, and is easily accessible by public transit and automobile.
Downtown:
Quality Entertainment
-9 museums & galleries,
including the San
Jose Museum of Art and the Tech
Museum of Innovation
-7 professional performance theaters, including the Repertory
Theatre & Opera
San Jose (soon to inhabit the rehabilitated Fox Theater).
-3 comedy clubs, including the Improv
Comedy Club
-4 arts/independent film screens at the Camera Cinemas
-155
dining opportunities, including French gourmet, steak
houses, Indian, British pub grub, Asian fusion, Italian, Mexican, Korean,
seafood, Chinese, Spanish tapas, and mroe.
-Nearly 4,000 free evening and weekend parking
spaces, over 21,000 spaces total
Downtown:
Expanded Housing
And once you're ready to move downtown, you'll find there is a wide diversity
of available housing, whether you prefer renting a loft in a historic building,
or a townhouse in a new development. There are over 2,600 residential units
downtown, over 2,000 under construction, and 3,200 in development. The City
of San Jose is dedicated to increasing the supply of attractive and diverse
housing. In fact, the Redevelopment Agency consistently dedicates 24-34% of
its annual budget to affordable housing, above the state requirement of 20%.
Downtown: Public Transit Hub
Downtown San Jose is the hub for public transit in the South Bay. Caltrain,
ACE, Amtrak, light rail, buses, the San Jose International Airport, and future
BART converge in Downtown San Jose. Additionally, Downtown is accessible from
Highways 280, 87, and 101. (Not to mention that driving to Downtown is "reverse
commute" for those living on the peninsula!)
Many Downtown employees even walk to work from nearby historic neighborhoods,
new developments, and residences "just down the street"! Short commutes
pay off in quality of life and productivity for your employees!
Recent
retail/restaurant/entertainment openings:
Arcadia
(Marriott Hotel): The restaurant features twists on American "comfort"
dishes (such as chicken fried steak made with Kobe beef).
Zoe (corner of 1st & San Salvador, in SoFA): Downtown San Jose's newest hotspot, brought to you by the owners of Agenda Restaurant, Bar & Annex. Zoe's is restaurant and nightclub.
Touchstone Climbing (Paseo de San Antonio, between 1st & 2nd Streets): Bouldering (rock climbing), yoga, and pilates. This Bay Area company also operates Iron Works in Berkeley.
Coming soon:
P.F. Chang's China Bistro, McCormick & Schmick Seafood Restaurant, Melting
Pot, Artist & Craftsman (art supply store),
& more!
San
Jose State University
Did you know...
SJSU is the #1
provider of engineers to Silicon Valley? Or that its Computer
Engineering Department ranks #2, nationally, among public universities
offering B.A. and M.A. degrees? SJSU is located in Downtown San Jose;
an easy walk for the student-intern!
Amazingly, some Silicon Valley start-ups have yet to consider SJSU as
a resource for employees, expert advice, and test marketing.
Mark your calendar for the largest
free jazz festival in the world - August 7-10th - San Jose
www.sanjosejazz.org
Key
Links:
Software Business Cluster
Software Development Forum
SJSU Engineering Department
Entrepreneur
Center
Chamber of Commerce
SV
Manufacturing Group
Office of Economic Dev't
SJ Redevelopment
Agency
Downtown Association
Industrial Area Site Finder
Next
issue:
- San Jose's developing economic strategy: City staff reach out to business
execs for feedback, ideas
- Spotlight on San Jose Business Incubators, such as the Software Business Cluster which has graduated 50 start-ups and is currently working with 20 early stage software companies..
To be added or removed from this mailing list, please send an email to Start-up@ci.sj.ca.us
July 2003
