California Miramar University has signed a 10-year lease for a nearly 21,000-square-foot two-story building in downtown San Jose, creating the first Bay Area outpost of the for-profit business-focused school.
Colliers agents John Kovaleski, David Buchholz and Alexander Kovaleski represented Design Acquisition, the landlord at 505 South Market Street, according to a Colliers press release. The tenant was represented by Derik Benson of Kidder Matthews and Drew Arvay of Cushman & Wakefield.
John Kovaleski could not comment on how much the university, a subsidiary of Mumbai-based SP Jain School of Global Management, is paying for the building. It had been vacant for about 18 months after the previous tenant, sales software company Xactly, moved out, he said. Its Silicon Valley headquarters is now located in Los Gatos, according to the company’s website.
The San Jose Mayor’s Office and Building Department expedited the plan review and building permit approval process so that classes can begin in fall 2024, according to the release. San Francisco-based architecture firm Studio BANAA Architecture and Interiors is already at work transforming the former tech office into a university campus.
The school’s main campus is just north of San Diego and it has another in-person facility near West Covina, east of Los Angeles, as well as online classes.
In addition to classrooms, the new space will have a learning commons, a library, tiered lecture halls and computer labs. It can accommodate up to 1,000 students, according to Samarth Jain, director of business development, North America at SP Jain School of Global Management.
SP Jain picked the freestanding turn-of-the-century property in part because of its onsite secure parking and “unique interior aesthetic with open wood truss ceilings and skylights.” The location has walkable nearby amenities like apartments, restaurants and art galleries in the cultural district near the city’s convention center, tech museum, Center for the Performing Arts and San Jose State University.
Students will be essential to remaking San Jose after the pandemic, according to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
“The best thing that can happen to a downtown is the arrival of a new university,” Mahan said in a statement. “Welcoming California Miramar University means hundreds of new students living, studying and supporting businesses in our city’s core, breathing life back into the heart of San Jose.”
San Jose is not the only Bay Area city courting colleges to revitalize their emptied-out downtowns. San Francisco Mayor London Breed has been vocal about getting the UC system to open a campus in the city. Those efforts have made an impact as the spokesperson for the president’s office said earlier this month that both the 10-campus system and UC Berkeley in particular were “exploring opportunities to advance their research, public service and education mission through an expanded presence in San Francisco.”
In Oakland, nursing school Samuel Merritt University and Strada Investment Group are building a new $240-million 11-story campus on a city-owned lot about a block from City Hall. Oakland officials have said the new campus will be a boost to its downtown, where about one in three offices are empty.
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