11-story hotel planned for Santana Row area

Another exciting development for the 95128-Valley Fair/Santana Row area. Some developers are planning on building (assuming the projects gets approved) an 11 story hotel about a block from Santana Row at what is currently the site of a 76 gas station.

For those of you not familiar with the area, Santana Row is a trendy upscale shopping, entertainment and residential district across the street from the Valley Fair Shopping mall. Many silicon valley residents, and tourist, go there from time to time for shopping and dinning. It has become something of a source of pride for the valley and has increased property valleys of nearby homes.

The area has become so popular that other developers, such as the one talked about in the article below, want to build in or near there to capitalize on its success.

A gas station across from Westfield Valley Fair could sprout a new use: Hospitality.

Developer Tony Baig's VillaDevelopers Inc. is proposing an 11-story hotel on the half-acre site at 2850 Stevens Creek, according to planning documents filed this week. The project would include 173 guest rooms and a top-floor restaurant and balcony overlooking the area, which is San Jose's main retail node.

This is the latest potential addition to the Santana Row/Valley Fair neighborhood. Mall owner Westfield is embarking on a $600 million expansion to Valley Fair following the completion of a giant new parking garage last year. Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns Santana Row, is bulking up its office space both at Santana Row and across the street, at the old theater complex called "Santana West."

Then there's Volar, a proposed 25-story residential tower at 350 S. Winchester Ave.

Hospitality has been an especially hot market segment of late as developers look to profit from the boom in business travel in Silicon Valley. You can read more about that trend here.

There is currently no brand associated with the new hotel proposal, said Henry Cord, with development consultant Cord Associates, who is working with Baig. Two possible flags include Hilton's new Canopy brand and Choice Hotels' Cambria.

The project site is pretty small, so parking would be tucked into the building above grade on floors two through five. Guest rooms would be on floors six through 10.

The project is just starting the city planning and approval process, but Cord told me that the plan is to begin construction in early 2017.


Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal, Nathan Donato-Weinstein
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/03/03/11-story-hotel-planned-for-santana-row-area.html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2016-03-03&u=QP9J5%2Fn6AakdJoqHnLaUCw0cdac589&t=1457047062&j=71084342

Get a Black Friday Deal on a Home This Holiday Season

The day after Thanksgiving is universally known as the day to get started on holiday shopping and score big savings on the hottest gifts for friends and family.

But what about finding deals on a new home? It turns out, shoppers can get those, too. Zillow’s second annual analysis on bargain home shopping is here, revealing the cities offering the biggest home discounts and the most price cuts.

Zillow looked at two metrics for the analysis: the actual home discount as a percentage of the original listing price, and the percentage of listings with a recent price cut, as of September 2015.

And now — drum roll, please — for the winners:

Detroit comes in at number one, for the second year in a row, as the city to get the biggest home discount. The median discount given on a home in Detroit is 16.7 percent. Detroit leads by a large margin; Cleveland, OH is the next-best city to get a discount, with a median discount of 7.6 percent.

Check out Albuquerque, NM and Omaha, NE for the greatest odds of finding a home with a price cut: 23.6 percent of homes in Albuquerque have a price cut, and 23.5 percent of homes in Omaha.

Below is the complete list of city winners. Happy Black Friday, and happy shopping!



Source: Zillow Blog, Jordyn Lee
http://www.zillow.com/blog/black-friday-deal-on-a-home-187309/

Expansion At Valley Fair Shopping Mall

Here is an article from earlier this month from the Mercury News regarding the expansion that is underway at the Valley Fair Shopping mall. They have already torn down the existing parking garage by the women's Macy's and are currently building a much bigger one that can accommodate 1,000 more cars. This new garage will have technology that can find your car in case you can't remember where you parked. Also, they plan on adding a Bloomingdales, more high end retailers and a luxury movie theater. 

So why am I writing about this in blog for real estate? Because in my opinion the expansion at the very popular and trendy Valley Fair Shopping mall says something about the economic viability of this area. I mean, think about it? They wouldn't be spending millions and millions of dollars expanding the mall if they thought this area didn't have the economic potential to support the expansion. They know that the Silicon Valley is rich with high paying jobs, a higher median income, a high median home sales price of $729K, and nice weather - though we do have a severe drought that could come back to bite us in the a*s economically, but that not withstanding, this valley has long term economic potential. Westfield, the group that owns the mall, that this area has the people with enough disposable income to make the mall expansion good investment.

As a Realtor looking at all this it comes as no supprise for me that there are corporations that are willing to spend big dollars on an investment in this area. I am still seeing multiple offers and a rising median home sales price. I know it is not go on forever, but I also know that betting on this area is a safe bet, be it for retail shopping or real estate.

 



Valley Fair mall 'smart' garage will find your car