South Tower of the Signia by Hilton resort at 170 South Market Avenue in downtown San Jose.
SAN JOSE — A downtown San Jose resort tower might develop into a housing highrise, relying on the result of an actual property deal that’s headed into its latter phases, in line with the property’s principal proprietor.
The proprietor of the landmark Signia by Hilton San Jose, an 805-room resort, is actively in search of a purchaser for one of many two towers of the lodging advanced.
Up on the market is the 264-room south tower, which might be transformed to a brand new use. The 541-room north tower would stay a standard resort, mentioned Sam Hirbod, the principal proprietor of the double-tower resort advanced.
Lengthy-term lodging stays or a housing advanced are among the many potential future makes use of of a repurposed and redeveloped south tower underneath a brand new proprietor, in line with a advertising brochure that’s being circulated by JLL, a industrial actual property agency that’s in search of consumers for the highrise.
However the notion of prolonged lodging stays within the southern tower is encountering opposition from a coalition headed up by labor leaders, neighborhood teams, arts organizations and Metropolis Councilmember Omar Torres.
The coalition, which incorporates the Silicon Valley Rising group, has raised considerations that the San Jose financial system might undergo if the southern tower is transformed to makes use of equivalent to long-term lodging stays. A standard resort operation options short-term stays.
“Prolonged-stay company usually tend to prepare dinner their meals of their room and spend their leisure time within the resort’s facilities,” the coalition said in an e-mail it despatched to this information group. “Which means they’re much less prone to discover the native space and spend cash in native companies.”
The coalition leaders say they’re involved concerning the 200 union jobs on the Signia by Hilton, situated at 170 South Market Avenue in San Jose.
“Jobs signify the spine of a wholesome downtown financial system, and they need to be put entrance and heart on this dialogue,” mentioned Jean Cohen, government officer of the South Bay Labor Council.
Nevertheless, it seems that an extended-stay resort operation is now off the desk, in line with Hirbod.
“We’re working with a purchaser that may convert the south tower to housing,” Hirbod mentioned. “We made a pivot away from prolonged stays.”
Conversion of the southern tower to housing might deliver a number of hundred everlasting residents into downtown San Jose. Plus, the Bay Space and Silicon Valley alike undergo from important shortages of residences.
The shift in enterprise methods within the gross sales efforts arose within the wake of notable opposition to the notion of a long-term lodging operation.
The massive downside going through the Signia by Hilton, which previously was the San Jose Fairmont, is the comparatively low occupancy within the 805-room resort, in Hirbod’s view.
The resort usually is 30% full, Hirbod estimated. That works out to 242 rooms. And it additionally implies that if all of those 242 stays had been concentrated solely within the 541-room northern tower, the resort nonetheless wouldn’t be offered out.
All the major facilities within the resort — the foyer, eating places, cocktail lounge, health heart, swimming pool, and huge and small assembly areas — are all within the northern tower that may stay a standard resort. Plus, these are largely renovated and upgraded, together with the rooms.
“We spent $65 million to improve and reposition the resort,” Hirbod mentioned. “We now have one of many nicest lodges within the western United States. Now we have a world-class operator in Hilton.”
Hirbod believes the resort would operate in a extra optimum style if it had been smaller than its present 805 rooms.
“Iif this deal goes via, the resort can be rightly sized and rightly positioned to serve the San Jose neighborhood, enterprise vacationers and leisure vacationers for many years to come back,” Hirbod mentioned. “I’m very optimistic about the way forward for the resort.”
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