Apartments, Retail Approved for West San Jose Site

Holland Partners has secured final approval for a long-planned mixed-use redevelopment in west San Jose after a previous office proposal fell through.

The Seattle-based developer won the city’s signoff for a 575-unit apartment complex on a 4.7-acre site at 3896 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Mercury News reported. The project replaces a previously entitled 882,000-square-foot office and retail development that never came to fruition due to what Holland Partners called “changes in market conditions,” presumably the post-pandemic shift in demand from offices to housing across the Bay Area.

Holland’s revised plan calls for two eight-story apartment buildings at the corner of Stevens Creek Boulevard and Saratoga Avenue. The first building will contain 264 units and 7,600 square feet of retail, while the second will deliver 311 apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail. The 575-unit total tops earlier plans that envisioned 532 units.

The project will require demolition of several existing commercial buildings on the site. In their place, Holland is planning a dense residential development anchored by 13,600 square feet of ground-floor retail and roughly 25,000 square feet of resident amenities, including fitness centers, co-working space, club rooms and lobbies in both buildings. The development will also include 29 apartments designated for very low-income households.

The property sits within San Jose’s Stevens Creek Urban Village, where city planners have encouraged dense mixed-use development. Before the office market stalled, Holland had pursued a sprawling office, retail and fitness campus at the site, winning entitlements before shelving the proposal as leasing demand weakened. The pivot mirrors a broader trend across the Bay Area where developers have increasingly shifted from office projects to residential construction amid elevated vacancy rates and persistent housing shortages.

The City of San Jose is required by the state to plan for 62,200 new housing units, including 15,000 for residents earning less than half of the area median income, by 2031.

— Chris Malone Méndez