Sand Hill Revises Plan for Retail Village in San Jose

Sand Hill Property has once again tweaked its plans for a controversial retail village in southwest San Jose by including nearly 100 fewer homes, with no affordable housing.

The Palo Alto-based developer led by Peter Pau has revised its plans to replace the El Paseo Shopping Center with a mixed-use project at 1312 El Paseo De Saratoga and 1777 Saratoga Avenue, SFYimby reported.

In January, the developer had upgraded previously approved plans for redeveloping the nearly 30-acre shopping center into three apartment buildings with 867 units, including a 120-unit assisted living facility for seniors and a stand-alone Whole Foods Market.

Plans for the 10-acre project, dubbed El Paseo De Saratoga, now call for 775 market-rate units and 88,800 square feet of shops and restaurants. An initial proposal to include 150 affordable apartments is off the table.

The project would include 10- and 12-story apartment buildings with 775 apartments above 30,400 square feet of retail.

A seven-story senior assisted living facility would span 231,000 square feet. A 58,400-square-foot Whole Foods Market remains in the revised plan.

The project, designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Lantz Boggio Architects, includes floor-to-ceiling windows with large corner balconies, according to a rendering. Outdoor seating and umbrellas line the restaurants below.

Construction is expected to take nearly four years. A project cost and timeline were not disclosed.

Sand Hill bought the shopping center in 2019 for $146 million. Three years later, its El Paseo de Saratoga project was given unanimous approval by the City Council, despite objections from neighborhood groups concerned about higher density and traffic.

In July 2022, Citizens for Inclusive Development filed a lawsuit to challenge San Jose’s approval process, according to the Mercury News. The group objected that the city, while noting the development would include a supermarket, didn’t reveal it would be a Whole Foods.

In August last year, a Santa Clara County judge ruled against the group and in favor of the City of San Jose. The following month, the group appealed the decision to the state Court of Appeal, which has not yet ruled on the case.

Elsewhere in Silicon Valley, after a nearly decade-long battle with the City of Cupertino and local residents over what to do with its Vallco Shopping Center, Sand Hill Property pitched a plan last year to redevelop the now 51-acre lot into a city-within-a-city.

The developer scaled back plans for the 7 million-square-foot redevelopment of the former mall by ditching its apartment towers and the world’s largest “green roof.”

— Dana Bartholomew