Downtown San Jose Hotel Plans to Expand at Choice Site
Downtown San Jose Hotel Plans to Expand at Choice Site
The Mercury News
09/10/18
Downtown San Jose Hotel Plans to Expand at Choice Site
By George Avalos
SAN JOSE — Plans have expanded for a hotel tower that would sprout on a choice site in downtown San Jose, a short distance from a planned Adobe Systems campus expansion and proposed Google transit village.
A 19-story hotel being eyed for 8 N. Almaden Blvd. and West Santa Clara Street in San Jose originally was expected to have 220 rooms. But a newly submitted set of proposals by project developer KT Urban calls for a 272-room hotel, complete with a rooftop restaurant.
“The Silicon Valley hotel market looks strong enough to support this kind of expansion,” Alan Reay, president of Irvine-based Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks California’s lodging market, said Monday.
One reason the market is robust: Rooms in the region — and San Jose in particular — are tough to come by during the week.
“I was just talking to somebody who is developing a hotel in San Jose, and they said it’s very difficult to find rooms during the week,” Reay said.
Tech-related business travelers are driving the demand during the week, lodging experts said.
“Rooms in San Jose are going for $300 to $500 a night Monday through Thursday for business-class hotels,” Reay said. “Friday through Sunday, if there’s not a game at Levi’s Stadium, prices are usually $100 to $300 a night.”
Experts tout the proposed hotel site as a favorable location, with a fresh cluster of hotels near the SAP Entertainment complex and the future Google and Adobe developments.
Just down the street, AC Hotel by Marriott opened a 210-room hotel in early 2017. A dual-brand Marriott totaling 311 rooms — and 19 for-sale residential condominiums — is being planned on the other side of the SAP Center and train station at West Julian Street and Stockton Avenue. And the 19-story hotel proposed by KT Urban would be built next to the iconic Hotel De Anza.
The new hotel tower at Almaden and Santa Clara could potentially open sometime in 2021. In addition to a rooftop restaurant with the potential for far-reaching views, the new hotel would also contain a fitness center and other amenities, city planning documents show.
“This is a great location,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning consultancy. “It’s an easy walk to the SAP arena, it’s right off Highway 87. It would be part of a cluster of hotels. Hotel operators like to be near other hotels.”
Cupertino-based KT Urban didn’t want to discuss the expansion plans on Monday. However, Reay suggested that the company that KT Urban anticipates would operate the hotel could have requested the 24 percent increase in the number of rooms.
“At 272 rooms, this is going to be a full service hotel,” Reay said. “There’s a high likelihood that the hotel company’s preferences were a factor behind increasing this to 272 rooms.”
