San Jose Names Czar to Turn Around Its Struggling Downtown

San Jose has named a czar to turn around its struggling downtown.

Nathan Donato-Weinstein, of the city’s Economic Development Department, has been appointed to a new post of downtown manager tasked with restoring economic luster to the area, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

“It’s been tough on Downtown San Jose for the last few years,” Donato-Weinstein told the Mercury News. “There’s the street environment, ground-floor vacancies, the slow return of workers to the office. Downtown San Jose has nowhere to go but up.”

Donato-Weinstein has served for the past few years as business development officer with the city’s Economic Development Department. He once served as a real estate reporter for the Silicon Valley Business Journal, according to his LinkedIn page.

In his new role as downtown manager, effective April 24, he will focus on bolstering its economy and adding life to its retail, dining, entertainment, housing and business workplaces.

The job, envisioned by the city’s new Mayor Matt Mahan, aims to make Downtown San Jose “the premier entertainment and cultural destination of Silicon Valley.”

Downtown San Jose, like other large cities across the Bay Area and California, has been slow to rebound from pandemic shutdowns and a shift from offices to remote work. This month, office vacancies across Silicon Valley hit a record high of 23.1 percent, according to Savills, jolted by job losses in tech and biotech.

Vacancy rates for first-class office buildings in Downtown San Jose were 20.4 percent in the first quarter, according to CBRE.

After laying off workers, Google may hit the brakes on its mega transit village near Diridon Station.

Finding ways to revitalize Downtown San Jose in a post-coronavirus economy will be a top priority for the new city official. The path to success is likely to be varied and ever-shifting, according to the Mercury News.

Downtown San Jose will start from scratch, observers say.

“People have been away from the Downtown for three years,” Donato-Weinstein said. “In some ways, we have to reintroduce people to the Downtown.”

“The building of a city is never done,”he said. “I look forward to waking up every day thinking about how we can improve for residents, businesses and visitors.”

— Dana Bartholomew