Revised plans have been submitted for El Paseo de Saratoga, the proposed partial redevelopment of a strip mall shopping center in West San Jose, Santa Clara County. The latest iteration cuts 325 units and adds a senior assisted living facility. Sand Hill Property Company is responsible for the development.
El Paseo redevelopment seen from the El Paseo shopping center surface parking lot, rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz
El Paseo senior assisted living facility, rendering by Lantz Boggio Architects
The city is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the revised El Paseo master plan. The event will be held this Wednesday, November 20th, starting at 6:30 PM. For more information about how to attend and participate, visit the city’s website here.
The current documents reveal that the amended master plan has reduced residential capacity from as many as 1,100 units across 1.29 million square feet in the 2022-approved project to 772 units across 783,500 square feet. The Commercial square footage has nearly doubled from 165,000 square feet to 319,800 square feet, with 231,000 square feet dedicated to the assisted living facility and 87,500 square feet for retail.
El Paseo site map, illustration by Solomon Cordwell Buenz
El Paseo residential courtyard, rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz
El Paseo Whole Foods box store, rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz
These recently published revisions are the second time that Sand Hill Property Company has requested a change to soften the potential density of the redevelopment of the El Paseo shopping center. Media coverage from earlier this year reported that the 2023-filed revisions called for 867 units, 120 units of senior assisted living, and no more housing above the grocery store.
The development will include four buildings across 10.7 acres. Buildings 1 and 2 will feature 772 apartments alongside 30,420 square feet of retail. Both structures have increased in floor count to 12 and 10 floors, respectively, though the overall height remains mostly unchanged by ‘adjusting the floor plate,’ according to recent documents. Of the 772 units, 39 will be designated as affordable housing.
The plans for Building 3 have remained unchanged since the 2023 revision, with plans for a 58,370-square-foot big-box grocery store. While the 2022-approved plans for the site would have the grocery store at the base of a podium-style apartment complex, Sand Hill Property found the stand-alone retail easier to finance. Building 4 will contain a seven-story senior assisted living facility spanning 231,000 square feet across seven floors.
El Paseo de Saratoga site roughly outlined by SFYIMBY, image courtesy Google Satellite
Solomon Cordwell Buenz and Lantz Boggio Architects are responsible for the design. Construction is expected to take nearly four years from groundbreaking to completion, though an estimate for groundbreaking has yet to be shared.
UPDATE: The article has been updated to more accurately reflect plans put forth by Sand Hill Property Company, namely the inclusion of 39 affordable units.
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Not a surprise with Sand Hill being the developer.
I hope this whole area begins to densify ASAP. I hate going to Saratoga and seeing those signs of “STOP HIGH DENSITY DEV ON CHESTNUT ST”
Millionaires fighting off housing development is disgusting. Good for West San Jose.
With this project & the Costco coming on the other side of Prospect, this area is going to become hot. I feel for the neighbors whose lives will be flipped on their heads. Traffic, sounds, congestion, riff raff, the inevitable increase in homeless/squalor… but for the rest of us, a major victory! Onwards!!
“The latest iteration cuts 325 units,”
God damn…
The retail mall area has been about 50% vacant since 2020.
High density housing is great for people that don’t want to make a family. But, does it support those people that want to make a family?
All I see is ugly tall buildings that destroy the look of Saratoga surroundings. Traffic is bad enough now and will obviously get worse if this development proceeds as planned. I hope if this plan proceeds the developers go broke. We don’t want any hi-rises in our beautiful neighborhood.
Not much green space for all those new residents. Only parking lots and buildings.