Knox-Goodrich building<\/a> at 26 through 36 South First St., has proposed the development of an eight-story apartment complex at 470 West San Carlos St. known as The Gifford.<\/p>\nSan Jose planning administrators initially were set to approve the apartment complex on July 8. That was deferred one week. After a second deferral on Wednesday, the issue will come up again on July 22.<\/p>\n
Stakeholders + Neighborhoods Initiative, a group formed by some residents, raised concerns in a July 3 letter to the city about the project on the western edges of downtown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis neighborhood is not opposed to housing,\u201d said Kathy Sutherland, co-president of Stakeholders + Neighborhoods. \u201cWe have supported hundreds of affordable and supportive housing units within two blocks of this property.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stakeholders + Neighborhoods believes the project contains some unwelcome design features, including a section of the new building that would be directly next to existing single-family homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cUrban Catalyst proposes an eight-story building that, by the city\u2019s own analysis, is \u2018a building with no setbacks\u2019 at the shared property line with our homes,\u201d Stakeholders + Neighborhoods wrote in the letter.<\/p>\n
The group noted that typical design guidelines in downtown areas near the Diridon train station require projects to have a step-back arrangement so they don\u2019t loom over existing homes.<\/p>\n
Urban Catalyst declined comment on the situation.<\/p>\n
The San Jose City Council gave preliminary approval on June 16 to a plan that would have the city pay an Urban Catalyst affiliate $3.6 million for the Knox-Goodrich building. In return, Urban Catalyst would begin construction in 2027 of the apartment complex, city documents show.<\/p>\n
San Jose officials believe the purchase of the historic building and development of The Gifford would greatly benefit the city\u2019s downtown district.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Gifford, along with Urban Catalyst\u2019s Icon-Echo Apartments, Gateway Residential Tower by CORE Developers, and the Bank of Italy conversion to residential units by Westbank, will spur a revitalization\u201d in downtown San Jose, city staffers wrote in a memo to the City Council.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Anthony Tordillos said at the June 16 meeting that the deal will help the city achieve its housing goals and noted that San Jose is buying the building for 60% less than what Urban Catalyst paid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a slam dunk for the city,\u201d Tordillos said, emphasizing San Jose in 2025 hit only 33% of its targeted mandate for the creation of new housing units. \u201cWe need all the housing we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erik Solivan, San Jose\u2019s housing director, said the deals would proceed separately and with sufficient scrutiny.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese two things are bridged together, but they are not in any way tied together,\u201d Solivan said. \u201cApproval of one does not fast-track approval of the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
City officials are already planning how to make use of the historic building.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce acquired, staff will activate the ground-floor storefront in the historic Knox-Goodrich building with a cultural-serving or commercial use,\u201d city staffers stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 A San Jose neighborhood group is questioning a downtown apartment project that is tied to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[160505,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-399853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-https-www-mercurynews-com-2026-06-15-home-san-jose-build-real-estate-economy-property-develop-house-history","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}