Hoping to secure space in one of three housing towers planned for Downtown San Jose? Better get in line.
The 500-unit highrises planned for 420 South 2nd Street, 98 East San Salvador Street and 420 South 3rd Street in the SoFA district have a waiting list of 4,000 potential residents, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
Nabr, a San Jose-based housing startup that allows people to design their own homes, just raised $48 million in financing for the project, initially to contain condominiums.
Nearly half the people on the waitlist now live in single-family homes, according to Nabr.
“There is untapped demand for living in downtown San Jose,” Roni Bahar, CEO and co-founder of Nabr, told the Chronicle. “We want to see more people become permanent residents in our large cities, especially in our urban core.”
The three highrises are expected to include 500 units, according to Nabr, which is heading up development. At the outset, the company intends to sell, rather than rent, the units. Affordable homes aren’t included. Instead, the units will be geared toward middle-income and higher-income buyers. Earlier marketing materials gave lease-to-purchase options.
The first project, known as SoFa One, would be a 140-unit tower on 3rd Street. The tower would be co-developed by Urban Community, based in San Jose. Nabr is seeking the money to build it.
Nabr was launched last year by Bahar, a former WeWork executive; Nick Chim, co-founder of Flux, a spinout of the secret Google X laboratory; and Bjarke Ingels, founder of Bjarke Ingels Group, an architectural firm based in Denmark.
The company bills itself as a direct-to-consumer builder that delivers custom and sustainable apartments in large numbers.
Its SoFa One, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, would include studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units in a building sheathed in laminated, North American timber. “Smart windows” would cut energy use by up to 20 percent.
Balconies of 350 square feet would allow room for barbecues, a vegetable garden and even trees, based on project renderings.
The building would have a community rooftop garden, a health and wellness center, a common play area, and a ground-floor plaza lined with retail shops, according to its website.
– Dana Bartholomew