SAN JOSE — A real estate titan has decided to place on the sales block a massive San Jose property that originally was to be developed as a tech campus and then as a housing development.
BXP — formerly Boston Properties — has put up for sale a 24-acre site in north San Jose, also saying Thursday that it has scrapped a recent push to pursue housing for seven acres of the prime property.
24-acre site in north San Jose, a property bounded by North First Street, Daggett Drive, Zanker Road and East Plumeria Drive, shown withn the outline. Boundaries are approximate. (Google Maps)
This latest decision by BXP represents a fresh sign of a retrenchment in the Bay Area office market as developers and tech titans seek ways to right-size or redevelop their commercial property holdings.
The site that’s up for sale is bounded by North First Street, Daggett Drive, Zanker Road and East Plumeria Drive, according to Santa Clara County property records.
“The property is currently on the market for sale on an as-is basis,” a BXP representative stated in an email sent to this news organization. BXP is not of the nation’s largest real estate firms.
The north San Jose site, currently occupied primarily by older buildings and empty building pads, has undergone a wide range of visions by its owner over a period of nearly a decade.
In 2016, BXP envisioned a new office campus on the site that would have totaled 1.1 million square feet. Apple at the time was rumored to be a likely tenant for the property.
That anticipated outcome didn’t come to fruition, and the office development didn’t get underway as anticipated.
The coronavirus outbreak in 2020, accompanied by wide-ranging business shutdowns and office closures, dealt a fresh blow to the plans to develop a tech campus on the site.
BXP’s difficulties weren’t unique: The economic catastrophe that the coronavirus unleashed also jolted countless property owners and tech companies in the Bay Area and nationwide.
In August 2024, BXP floated a proposal to develop several hundred homes on the site.
Now, BXP has decided that its best outcome for the property is to attempt to find a buyer for the entire 24-acre site, which commands one of the best locations in the Bay Area.
“BXP has paused the residential entitlement effort due to the sale,” the BXP representative swtated in the email.
The real estate titan owns two other major development sites in San Jose.
BXP is attempting to sell a downtown San Jose site where a massive office campus was once planned at 447 South Almaden Boulevard, across the street from the city’s convention center.
However, BXP is not attempting to sell the development site for a proposed tech campus in downtown San Jose known as Platform 16.
If it’s built, Platform 16 would become an eye-catching office campus on the banks of the Guadalupe River at the corner of Autumn Parkway and West Julian Street.
The coronavirus also whipsawed the Platform 16 project. BXP had just launched development of the site just before the government-ordered business shutdowns began, including halts to construction work.
BXP later resumed construction but then halted the Platform 16 development a second time due to weak demand from tech companies for office space. BXP says it has mothballed Platform 16 for now.
So for now, BXP is attempting to sell two of the three major development sites it has in San Jose, but is keeping ownership of the Platform 16 project site.