Earlier this month, Related Santa Clara held an open house at the Northside Library to debut a new proposal for its massive planned development on the former site of Santa Clara’s city golf course, across from Levi’s Stadium.
Related has held an exclusive negotiating agreement (ENA) on the 240 acres of the former city golf course since 2013. But construction has barely started, with the project stalling over CEQA lawsuits, disputes over environmental milestones — the site is the former city dump — and the pandemic shutdown.
In January, Related presented the city with a development plan amendment to add 1.6 million sq. ft. of light industrial space.
The Sept. 12 open house was the first public discussion of the new proposal.
“Related is committed to the project and very committed to the city,” said Evette Davis of Berg Davis Communications. “This open house is the beginning of re-engaging with the community on this project.”
The new plan replaces some of the hotel and office space in the previous plan with light manufacturing buildings. The area is behind the street-facing retail businesses, entertainment, hotels and housing.
The market has changed since the pandemic, said Related EVP Steve Eimer, and quite simply, there’s no demand for more office space. Vacant Silicon Valley office space hit an all-time high this year — 37% — the Mercury News reported in January. So developers aren’t embarking on new office development projects.
There’s one industry in particular that Related is aiming for with the new plan, according to Eimer: bio-medical.
“This is a growing industry,” he said. “A number of [bio-med] entities have indicated interest in growing their businesses in Santa Clara, but we can’t talk specifications until we have entitlement [approval from the city for the new plan].
“The new plan will allow us to begin construction on the project sooner because there is a market for the light industrial space,” he continued. “And the sooner the new plan gets approved — entitlement — and a lease signed, and work begins, the sooner Santa Clara will get a revenue boost from increased ground rent.”
“This project is an intricate puzzle,” said Davis. “The pandemic brought tremendous changes for marketing a project like this — changes in travel, the demand for office space. Some of the pieces are going to have to change.”
Related isn’t ruling out distribution centers in the new light industrial development.
“Those uses are coming in under the original CEQA* analysis for the project,” said Related Senior Design Manager Tom Borshaw. “Those reports [for the new plan] will be done before the final entitlement.”
If they are built, Borshaw doesn’t think that the warehouse’s proximity to housing will be a problem.
“There’s space for quite a bit of landscaping because of the constraints on developing over landfill requires many feet of setback,” he said.
One thing Related says it isn’t planning for at this point is data centers on the site. That’s because there’s not enough electricity to support them.
“There are enough data center projects already in the city’s plans to gobble up all the power,” said Borshaw.
Currently, the city expects that the new plan will come to the council in January 2025. And if it’s not approved?
“We’re in this for the long term,” said Borshaw. “We’re going to keep knocking on the door until we can agree on a plan.”
“There are valid excuses for changing the plan,” said Santa Clara resident Jeff Houston. “I’m not judging them for changing things because it’s been a long time since the project started, and the market has changed. If this is what they need to do to get the project done, I’m fine on all that. I just don’t know why they couldn’t have just kept the golf course here all this while.”
None of those attending the open house appeared to be strongly opposed to the change in plans. However, some objections were raised that have been ongoing since the project started.
“Why hasn’t the community been more involved in the project from the inception,” Northside business owner Ron Patrick wanted to know. “Instead, we’re kind of asked to rubber stamp stuff here. There’s absolutely zero meetings.”
“Every time we come in to get a permit to build something,” replied Eimer, “We have to go through a development review, plan approval and architectural review process, all of which is subject to public input.”
Saying that this was “minutiae,” Patrick explained that his objection was to the concept of the development, which was rental buildings and apartments rather than for-sale development. This, Patrick said, didn’t do anything to build community wealth.
“You guys build buildings. We’re supposed to build communities,” Patrick said. “And it’s kind of odd that we’re supposed to just sign off on the stuff.
“There is $200 million a year getting sucked out of this area to banks in New York and a group in Montreal,” he continued. “Industrial building, that’s my bread and butter. There’s no way for me to make money in there if you just rent the thing. This entire project is a large sucking sound of money on this community.”
Carpenters Union Local 405 was also at the open house, with a table outside the library protesting what they allege is Related subcontractors’ failures to pay area-level wages. However, the union representatives declined to explain their complaint, saying that they had to consult “headquarters” in Oakland first.
*California Environmental Quality Act
To learn more about Related:
Homepage for Related Santa Clara
New Northside Starts Taking Shape
Putting the Santa Clara There There
Santa Clara City Observer July 6, 2016
Construction Ahead for Massive Related Santa Clara Project
Pandemic Raises Questions About Related Santa Clara
Is Santa Clara Anticipating Lawsuit From Related Companies Over Stalled Agreement?
City Place Development Displaces Local Business
Related’s New Plan for Northside — Bait & Switch?