Related Swaps Industrial for Offices at Santa Clara Project

Related Companies has tweaked its plans for a 240-acre urban village in Santa Clara to include industrial buildings instead of offices.

The New York-based developer has revised plans to include 1.4 million square feet of light industrial and advanced manufacturing buildings at its Related Santa Clara project on Tasman Drive across from Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Related would ditch 4 million square feet of offices. With industrial now taking up 1.4 million square feet, it’s not clear how the firm will make up for the remaining 2.6 million square feet as the overall project will remain the same size.

The 9.2 million-square-foot project was initially planned to include 1,680 homes, 5 million square feet of corporate offices, 700 hotel rooms and a “city center” with offices, retail shops, restaurants and a grocery store.

It’s proposed on city-owned land, once a city golf course and a landfill.

A broad shift away from offices during the pandemic caused Related Companies to change its plans. At the close of last year, office availability in Silicon Valley hit a record 27.5 percent, which includes offices available for lease or sublease, according to Savills.

“Reimagining portions of the project in ways that better suit today’s economic environment has the potential to accelerate economic beneﬁts to the city,” Steve Eimer, executive vice president of Related Companies and co-managing partner of Related Santa Clara, said in a statement.

Related said the total size of the project would not change, but that portions would be shuffled and re-arranged.

The project, proposed a decade ago and mapped out in 2019, was supposed to begin construction in 2020, but has yet to break ground. A first phase was approved in late 2022, with Related now paying rent to the city for use of the land beneath the initial phase.

Related California has begun construction of two towers at its 684-unit Tasman East, a project east of Related Santa Clara. The project, including apartments and condominiums with senior and affordable housing, is expected to finish construction this year.

— Dana Bartholomew