SAN JOSE — A newly opened Starbucks coffee shop in a downtown San Jose housing tower is poised to be one of the key retail anchors in a complex of two residential highrises.
The store, which opened a few days ago, also can become a retail site that helps to revitalize that section of downtown San Jose and expand the traditional boundaries of the city’s urban core, city officials and a real estate executive believe.
The ubiquitous coffee house leased 2,500 square feet on the ground floor of Miro, a mixed-use housing, restaurant, retail and commercial complex on East Santa Clara between North Fourth Street and North Fifth Street that has 630 residential units.
“Starbucks is great for us, it’s great to get our first retail tenant,” said Ted McMahon, chief investment officer with Bayview Development Group, developer of the brand-new Miro towers.
“We are pleased to see Starbucks investing in our East Santa Clara corridor and look forward to having a good neighbor at a downtown corner that needs activation,” San Jose City Councilmember Raul Peralez said in emailed comments.
The coffee shop, with entrances on East Santa Clara and and on North Fifth Street, employs about 25 people, “mainly San Jose State University students,” said Kelly Kline, chief economic development and land use officer with the office of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
Miro offers 19,000 square feet of commercial space that’s expected to include a restaurant. The second-floor commercial site could be offices or retail.
“Miro extends the boundaries of where we consider the downtown to be,” McMahon said. “It adds to and extends the vibrancy of this neighborhood.”
