Trammell Crow Details Plans for 1K Homes in West San Jose

Trammell Crow has unveiled new details about its plan to replace a dead casino and restaurant in West San Jose with more than 1,000 homes.

A local affiliate of the Dallas-based developer filed preliminary plans last week to build 1,027 apartments in a complex at 360 and 400 Saratoga Avenue, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported.

The affiliate, High Street Residential Northern California Development, now has submitted a detailed proposal to replace the defunct Garden City Casino and Harry’s Hofbrau restaurant and parking lots.

The project would include three seven-story apartment buildings on the 10.3-acre site at Saratoga Avenue and Kiely Boulevard. Of those, 154 of the units would be set aside for affordable housing.

Each building would include a parking garage on its first two stories. One building would include 13,500 square feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants.

Plans call for a 373,300-square-foot building on the property’s northwest corner with 259 units and 350 parking slots. On its east side would be a 600,000-square-foot building with 411 units and 452 slots. The southeast corner would contain a 512,500-square-foot building with 357 apartments and 390 spots.

The complex would include a 1.4-acre park with an amphitheater, plus a smaller dog park.

New renderings, drawn by WRNS Studio of San Francisco, depict a putty and white complex featuring large windows and balconies with floor-to-ceiling windows on a ground-floor extension topped by a swimming pool deck.

The timeline for the project was not disclosed.

For Trammell Crow, the fourth proposal to replace the casino might be the charm, as developers have eyed the property owned by locally based Pestana Properties and an affiliate controlled by the Pestana family for years.

In 2016, Prometheus Real Estate and Shorenstein proposed homes and shops. In 2020, Dutchints Development pitched a hotel and office campus. In 2021, Urban Catalyst fielded plans for offices, housing, a hotel and a senior residential complex. None broke ground.

Garden City Casino relocated to North San Jose in 2012 and reopened as Casino M8trix. Harry’s Hofbrau shut its doors in 2019, though it still operates restaurants in San Leandro and Redwood City, according to the Business Journal.

— Dana Bartholomew