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Reprinted from: San Jose Mercury News

McEvoy Apartments receive financing
Project would create 319 affordable residential units
By George Avalos

SAN JOSE » Hundreds of apartments are poised to sprout in downtown San Jose now that a property sale and key financing are in place for a project to bring affordable housing to a site near the Diridon train station.

The McEvoy Apartments project, proposed for the corner of West San Carlos and McEvoy streets, would create 319 affordable residential units in a two-stage development, according to the developer and the financer for the residential complex.

First Community Housing, acting through an affiliate called McEvoy Street, paid $13.5 million on July 31 for several parcels where the seller, 699 West San Carlos Street, now operates a metal shop, S& S Welding, according to Santa Clara County property records.

At the same time as the property purchase, the First Community Housing affiliate obtained $15.8 million in financing from Housing Trust Silicon Valley, public records show.

The lender provided $9.4 million to finance the purchase, and another $6.4 million for pre-development costs. The financing didn’t indicate funding for any construction at this point.

“This is an affordable project, and an affordable housing project in Silicon Valley has zero market risk,” said Ralph Borelli, principal executive with San Jose-based Borelli Investment Company. Borelli, a commercial realty broker, helped arrange the deal for the S& S Welding owners, the Nick D’Arpino family, to sell the property to First Community Housing. “We are in a housing crisis and there is insatiable demand for housing.”

The maximum rental range for the apartments will be $700 to $1,400 for a studio; $750 to $1,500 for a one-bedroom; $900 to $1,800 for a two-bedroom; and $1,050 and $2,100 for a three-bedroom — far below market rates.

According to July 2018 McEvoy figures from RentCafe, the average rent in San Jose is $1,948 for a studio, $2,363 for a one bedroom, $2,878 for a two bedroom and $3,407 for a three bedroom.

Compared with current market rate prices, asking prices at the new project would be 46 percent lower for the affordable studios, 52 percent lower for the one-bedroom units, 53 percent lower for two-bedroom apartments and 54 percent lower for three-bedroom residences.

The first phase of building would provide a mix of one-, two- and threebedroom rental apartments, while the second phase would consist primarily of studios, according to Housing Trust Silicon Valley.

More of these developments could materialize in this part of downtown San Jose, said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land use and planning consultancy.

“This area is evolving into downtown San Jose 2.0,” Staedler said. “You will see more of these properties transition to mixed-use projects when you consider the cost of housing and the location near Google andDiridon station.”

Google is planning a mixed-use, transit-oriented community of offices, homes, shops, restaurants and open spaces where 15,000 to 20,000 of the search giant’s employees would work near the Diridon transit station and SAP Center.

A short distance away, San Josebased Adobe Systems plans to dramatically expand its existing threebuilding headquarters campus by constructing an iconic fourth office tower at an adjacent property.

“This location is absolutely what drove First Community Housing to do this deal,” Borelli said. Contact George Avalos at 408-8595167.

The planned 14-story, 319-unit residential tower is located in downtown San Jose at the corner of McEvoy and West San Carlos streets. Developers will replace the welding shop currently at the location.

120-Acre, $3-Billion Market Park San Jose Welcomes Safeway as Retail Center Anchor

SAN JOSE, Calif., July 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Safeway, which has served San Jose since 1926 and is now part of one of the largest food and drug retail chains in the U.S., will anchor a 100,000 sq. ft. retail center in the North Village of Market Park San Jose. Located immediately adjacent to the soon-to-open Berryessa BART station, when completed Market Park will be the largest transit-oriented development in Silicon Valley, consisting of nearly 4,000 residential units plus approximately 1,500,000 sq. ft. of office space — in addition to retail, neighborhood parks and walking/bicycling paths.

Complementing the full-service, 65,000 sq. ft. Safeway store, the North Village’s Market Place shopping center will include a major drugstore, financial institutions, and various restaurants and service businesses. The center’s attractive, modern design by Kenneth Rodrigues + Partners has been created to appeal to the upscale business clientele and residents within the Market Park community.

“Market Park is an ideal location for a new Safeway,” said Brad Street, president of Safeway Northern California. “We are excited to be part of this neighborhood and create new jobs in the community. We look forward to welcoming residents and offering the best in organic, fresh, local and healthier-for-you products.”

Construction of Retail Center Scheduled to Start in Fall of 2019

Construction of the retail center is anticipated to commence in the Fall of 2019, with the new next-generation Safeway store expected to open to shoppers in 2020.

Project management and office leasing are being led by Borelli Investment Company, while The Schoennauer Company is handling permitting for Market Park. For additional information about the master-planned community, please contact Ralph Borelli or Chris Anderson. Visit www.borelli.com or call (408) 453-4700. Or go to the Market Park San Jose website at marketparksanjose.com.

In a bid to provide a hub for Agricultural Technology and state-of-the-art warehouse and distribution, Silicon Valley Global Partners is set to build its $50 million THRIVE Business Park in Salinas adjacent to the Salinas Municipal Airport.

“Currently we have a 1 percent vacancy rate in Monterey County,” said Michael Bassetti, Cushman & Wakefield real estate director. “Momentum is growing, the economy is strong, and industrial space is in demand. The time is right to build it.”

SVG Partners, in collaboration with the city of Salinas, Borelli Investment Company, and Swenson developers and contractors, will develop the 206,000-square-foot flex research and development and warehouse/distribution center. Cushman & Wakefield will be the real estate company marketing the property to potential tenants.

Read the whole story in the Monterey Herald here, and in the San Jose Mercury News here.

SAN JOSE — A transit village in San Jose’s Berryessa district that has begun to emerge near a future BART stop has landed a Safeway supermarket as an anchor tenant, a vital piece to the mixed-use development.

Safeway has signed a lease for 65,000 square feet to occupy a site called North Village of Market Park San Jose, which is being crafted as a village of offices, apartment towers, single-family homes, shops, restaurants and parks.

Rising on the site of the long-time Berryessa Flea Market, the development could be an early first test of San Jose’s quest to bolster its relatively modest job base and combat worsening traffic woes in the Bay Area by deploying transit-oriented projects with a blend of homes, workplaces and retail.

Read the rest of the story in the Mercury News.

“We are right at the Berryessa BART station,” said Ralph Borelli, chairman of Borelli Investment Company”

From the San Jose Mercury News, 4/18/18:

The developers of a transit village next to San Jose’s first BART station say they are pushing forward with more intense densities and have unveiled new visions of how the ambitious Berryessa district development might appear.

The development, called Market Park San Jose, has begun to rise on the site of the old Berryessa Flea Market near Berryessa and Sierra roads.

“This will be the most significant urban village development to date in San Jose,” said Erik Schoennauer, a land use and planning consultant who is working on the project for the site’s property owner, the Bumb family. “We are very excited.”

Roughly 1,000 residences are already completed or under construction on the north side of this new urban village. However, the part of the project on the south side of Berryessa Road, with its mix of offices, residences and retail, could usher in dramatic changes to this part of San Jose.

On the south side of the development, 1.5 million square feet of offices — and possibly as much as 2.3 million square feet — along with as many as 2,635 residential units are being planned, according to Schoennauer and Borelli. Ground floor retail will be added to the five office buildings and six residential complexes.

“We are right at the Berryessa BART station,” said Ralph Borelli, chairman of realty firm Borelli Investment Company, which is spearheading the development on behalf of the Bumb family.

The five office buildings will range in height from six stories to 10 stories and be of varying square footage totals.

Tech giants such as Mountain View-based Google, San Jose-based Adobe Systems, Cupertino-based Apple, Menlo Park-based Facebook and Seattle-based Amazon have undertaken a widening set of expansions that include office leases and, in numerous instances, purchases of land and buildings.

Huge campuses occupied by these digital behemoths have begun to sprout throughout Silicon Valley, and they have begun to actively craft plans for more major office centers in the region. Multiple experts say the expansion boom is unlike any they have witnessed in decades.

“This Market Park development is a way for a tech company to locate jobs right next to that BART station, and have a housing solution in place, plus the new retail,” Borelli said.

Read the rest of the article in the San Jose Mercury News, here.