SAN JOSE — A busy developer is eyeing preliminary plans to develop three housing towers in an increasingly hip and trendy part of downtown San Jose.
Developer Gary Dillabough has obtained contracts to purchase several sites that would provide the parcels needed to build two residential projects where the towers would sprout in the South First Area, or SoFA district, of downtown San Jose.
Under preliminary plans that have been prepared by Dillabough and his company, Urban Community, the two projects together could bring nearly 400 units of residential housing within the three downtown highrises.
The housing highrises would be built next to or near office towers that are being planned by mega-developer Westbank on what is known as the Valley Title lot. Westbank and Dillabough have formed a development alliance to build five major projects that would usher in dramatic changes to downtown San Jose.
“These are sites that we are working on right now to make sure we can deliver on the vision to have housing near the office towers,” Dillabough said.
One residential tower would be 23 stories high, another would be 21 stories, and the third, 11 stories high, according to the early-stage plans that Dillabough has prepared.
The proposals are very preliminary, and subject to change, depending on the feedback they receive, Dillabough said.
“We want to make sure we are very thoughtful with regards to the neighborhood,” Dillabough said. “We want to be very collaborative. We want to understand how we would do something that is respectful and hopefully inspiring.”
Dillabough wants to get as much feedback as possible from the community in the vicinity of the proposed housing towers as well as from city leaders and municipal planners.
The properties at present accommodate the Dai-Thanh Supermarket on South Second Street, a strip shopping center that runs along East San Salvador Street between South Second and South Third streets, and an apartment complex at 420 S. Third St.
Dillabough believes the three residential towers would help address the housing shortages in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area generally.
“The biggest issue we have in the South Bay and San Jose is housing,” Dillabough said. “We have to build housing that is at scale and in meaningful amounts. We have to create some momentum there.”
The trio of housing highrises in the SoFA district is just the start of what Dillabough envisions for San Jose.
“You’re going to hear us talking about housing a lot in the next six months,” Dillabough said.
