Downtown San Jose is officially saying goodbye to the historic Woolworth building.
City planning officials last week approved a permit for the demolition of the 27 S. First St. structure, putting Dallas-based developer Alterra Worldwide one step closer to breaking ground on a proposed 22-story residential tower.
The project includes 374 market-rate residential units and a 35,712-square-foot retail space on the bottom floor. The new development follows a raft of forthcoming projects in downtown San Jose, as developers see an opportunity to build housing before BART eventually extends to Diridon Station in the heart of the city.
“The city and the region are facing a major housing crisis because there is not enough housing,” Erik Schoennauer, a land-use consultant on the project, told San Jose Inside in a recent interview. “The only solution is to build more housing, and the best place to build housing is in an urban neighborhood served by transit.”
All of the units will be market-rate because, according to Schoennauer, the project doesn’t “pencil out” with below-market-rate “affordable” housing units, meaning that it wouldn’t be considered profitable enough by investors. The project doesn’t have a retail tenant lined up yet, he added, but developers envision a restaurant on the first floor.
San Jose's historic Woolworth building. (Courtesy of Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History)
“It’s great if we can have people living and working in proximity to downtown,” said Patrick Kelly, a project manager in the city’s planning division. “We want to create some life on the street, with people living and shopping and spending time in downtown. That helps the downtown economy.”
Built in 1925, the Woolworth building with preserved terrazzo floors sits in San Jose’s nationally-registered downtown historic district across from the city’s first skyscraper, the 14-story Bank of Italy. Until 1997, the building was home to a Woolworth department store, which in its heyday was among the country’s largest department store chains.
After Woolworth’s shuttered, the site has seen several failed attempts at revitalizing downtown. The city’s redevelopment agency bought the property in 1998 and leased it to House of Blues, committing a $5.7 million subsidy to have it turned into a music venue. But the deal fell apart in 2002, and in 2005 the Black Sea Gallery furniture store moved in. The building became a Ross discount department store from 2010 to 2016.
Since then, the building has been occupied by Local Color, a nonprofit artist hub that occupies buildings awaiting development.
Alterra Worldwide still has get two additional permits before the building will be demolished for construction, which Schoennauer anticipates will take up to six months.
Further complicating matters, developers have to contend with rising construction costs, labor shortages and finding investors, which often takes time, said Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association.
“You’re not going to see a building being demolished tomorrow,” he said.
Still, Schoennauer said Alterra Worldwide plans to break ground on schedule and already has a contractor in mind.
A rendering of the planned Tower 27 tower. (Image courtesy of Alterra Worldwide)
guys you don’t get it, this will be under water in 12 years…
why is the city council letting this get built?
Tomorrow’s slums built today.
>> The only solution is to build more housing, <<
Actually it isn't.
HOAPRES
What do you feel the answer to the housing problem is then? Please offer an alternative solution.
Solution: Just stop calling it a problem.
Make the tech industry follow the same labor laws everybody else has to follow.
Problem solved.
Please elaborate if you have any actual knowledge.
Future Urban Vote Plantation:
https://i.imgur.com/lsKmPh3.png
seems like every week downtown loses another historic building. would be nice if there was someway to save some of this history – at least in a digital form so generations from now can see what san jose used to look like. I still miss the old Greyhound Bus Station – — a lot of stories passed through there.
Welcome to Googleville.
glad i left 3 months ago
You should probably also leave this website though
And I trust you are not bringing broken CA Values with you. Please spare the people that have worked hard to build their community this corrupt, destructuve culture.
The only way this project could be more useless is if they decided to rent to the cats and dogs of Google executives and turned the lower floor into a Chipotle. …. I may have just given the idiots an even brighter idea.
Thumbs up!
Perhaps they could install outdoor urinals for the “unhoused”. (thats San Jose terminology for hobo)
A lot of history gone already more people more traffic no parking. No wonder a lot of people have left this once beautiful city. As it is it takes at least 30 minutes or more to get from one side of town to the pther.
Perhaps building more gated communities is needed before the BART crime train comes to San Jose. Don’t think the folks buying million dollar condos are gonna be riding BART or the light rail. Too bad the developers bought off the city officials as San Jose once was a livable city.
Wow. SO much negativity! I think it’s a beautiful development that is badly needed on First Street,
says the corrupt Nanci Klein from the City of SJ Economic Development department aka the department all the developers have their paid money trolls working for them in. Kick backs galore!
> Kick backs galore!
More dish, please.
Totally agree!!! When will Garden City Construction bail out of downtown? Im sure theyre still suckling Liccardo’s teet as well. Bunch of parasites