The morning before the San Jose City Council was set to vote on selling land to Google, panelists at Bisnow’s Silicon Valley event voiced their hopes for the city with the promise of a large employer moving in and how the city could benefit from it.
Early Wednesday morning, city council approved selling several parcels near Diridon Station for more than $100M to Google in a move that advances the tech giant’s efforts to create a transit village that could eventually reach 8M SF and bring 20,000 jobs to town. The meeting, which had started Tuesday, stretched for more than 10 hours and resulted in the arrest of some protesters, the Mercury News reports. The company’s plans have already spawned a “Google effect” of investment from developers targeting properties around the planned transit village. Downtown San Jose property sales exceeded $1.4B in the 12 months that ended in September — three times the previous 12 months. Google could play a prime role in the boom in downtown San Jose that is already underway, speakers said at Bisnow’s Silicon Valley Construction & Development Forecast in San Jose Tuesday morning. The event covered construction challenges, rising costs, new development, financing, tech and trends. “I think it has the potential to be a great deal,” Jay Paul Co. Director of Acquisitions and Capital Markets Kristin Molano said of the city’s land sale to Google.
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