Editor’s note: The Silicon Valley Business Journal is exploring what the future might hold for San Jose’s central business district. Read our stories at this link, and click here to buy a ticket to our Feb. 24 event.

No matter the type of real estate project, downtown San Jose has plenty of commercial projects making their way through the approvals pipeline or waiting for a construction start date. If developers are fearful about what a post-Covid landscape looks like, they’re not showing it.

Office space

Glassed up and topped off: Adobe Inc.’s glass-covered fourth tower (seen under construction in the slideshow above) makes for a striking vista as you drive on Highway 87. A few blocks away, the Jay Paul Company’s 200 Park office tower — the first commercial building not affiliated with an existing project to rise downtown since 488 S. Almaden Blvd. was completed in 2002 — has topped off at 19 stories.

Approvals secured: In the last two years, the City Council has blessed four projects along Almaden Boulevard and Park Avenue. Taken together, they’ll bring more than 8 million square feet of new office space to San Jose. But before construction starts for three — Jay Paul’s CityView redevelopment, Urban Community/Westbank’s Park Habitat and KT Urban’s Woz Way Towers — demolition has to happen. The fourth, Boston Properties’ Alamden Office Project, replaces a surface parking lot. When work starts on any of them remains unknown.

Housing

The leasing office is open: The tallest residential project in San Jose, the two-tower Miro (pictured) on Santa Clara Street, is filling up. The Julian — a five-story, market-rate apartment building near San Pedro Market — opened up post-pandemic. The Grad on San Carlos Street near SJSU brought a new type of housing to the market — privately-developed, student-focused apartments with luxury amenities.

Proposals for every resident: The years when developers shied away from downtown — worried that it didn’t have much to offer or fearful about crime — are over. Developers like Urban Community aren’t just bullish about downtown — they believe people are an absolute must, so UC has devoted two of their five projects to residents. SoFA would get multiple residential towers, including a 300-apartment, 29-story Roygbiv Real Estate high-rise, and the 336-unit, 23-story Garden Gate.

Mixed-Use

Google gets the go: Last summer, the City Council approved Google LLC’s sweeping Downtown West plan (pictured) to remake the western part of San Jose’s center. Dubbed Downtown West, it has a blueprint for 7 million square feet of office space, thousands of residential units and dedicated spaces for bars, restaurants and cultural spaces. But we haven’t seen detailed renderings of buildings, and we don’t know Google’s timetable.

All-in-one: Where Andy’s Pet Shop used to be on Notre Dame Avenue, Aquity’s The Carlysle (pictured) would have 150,000 square feet of offices, 7,603 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 290 apartments. Other developments going all-in on mixed-use include Urban Catalyst’s Icon/Echo with 300 units and 420,000 square feet of office space; and Urban Community’s The Energy Hub, with nearly the same amount of offices, along with 194 apartments and nearly 32,000 square feet of retail.

Hospitality and leisure

Hello Hilton: This spring, Hilton Hotels will replace the Fairmont (pictured in the slideshow above) flag with one for a new Hilton brand. It’s so new that San Jose is expected to have only the second Signia by Hilton — a brand focused on meetings and events. The owners aren’t changing; only the brand. Expect a reopening as early as next month.

Starts and stops: Café Stritch, the venerable jazz venue on First Street in SoFA, has closed for good, joining other eateries and bars that either couldn’t survive the pandemic or, in the case of Cinebar on San Fernando, went up in flames. But with death comes rebirth: Nirvana Soul coffee shop across the street from Café Stritch opened a few months into Covid, and a bar/event space called the Rec Room opened at 1 E. San Fernando.