New San Jose hotel expands what it means to be downtown
There were cheers from many corners Monday at the ribbon cutting for the Townplace Suites by Marriott, a 176-room extended stay hotel that’s definitely a standout building on West San Carlos Street.
With the recent construction slowdown, you can bet Urban Catalyst CEO Erik Hayden — whose career has involved a lot of buildings in the West San Carlos corridor — was happy to see the completion of the second of eight projects the company has in the pipeline. San Jose City Councilmember Michael Mulcahy, whose district includes the new hotel, invited three arts leaders — MACLA’s Anjee Helstrup Alvarez, San Jose Jazz’s Brendan Rawson and CMT San Jose’s Dana Zell — to the opening because the transient occupancy tax the hotel will generate helps fund the arts.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and other city leaders said they were happy to see more hotel rooms open in the downtown area to help ensure the city gets to keep big events like GTC, Nvidia’s big tech conference.
The site of the seven-story hotel on West San Carlos and Josefa streets was home to the Danzi Corner Grocery a century ago — a large, framed photo of the market is in the hotel lobby — and more recently to businesses including Hub Cap City and Keystone Restaurant Supply. I doubt any of them would have considered their locations downtown back in their day, but that’s changed as the footprint of what’s considered downtown these days is a lot bigger than it was in the 1980s or ’90s.
Highway 87 had long been considered the western border of downtown, but that line’s gotten very blurry, starting with the opening of San Jose Arena — now SAP Center — in 1993. The Shark Tank had to be downtown, so downtown had to get bigger. Same for San Jose City Hall, which was built just beyond the traditional Fourth Street boundary, and the San Jose Market Center on Coleman Avenue. This growth was documented in the city’s downtown transportation plan, which expanded downtown to include the Japantown, Spartan-Keyes and Calle Willow neighborhoods, taking the western edge all the way to Diridon Station (which encompasses Google’s still-in-limbo Downtown West project).
The addition of these neighborhoods to downtown adds to its diversity, for sure, and it makes sense geographically. The new hotel is just a 20-minute walk to the San Jose McEnery Convention Center and the arty SoFA district. That’s downtown enough for me.
COURAGEOUS GESTURE: Forty guests raised nearly $12,000 at a private lunch last Saturday to support the American Cancer Society’s Courageous Kids program and pediatric cancer research. The event was held at Sorelle Italian Bistro in Campbell, which Fran Rudé opened in 2013 and passed on to her daughters — Deanna, Teresa and Lori — after she lost her battle with cancer in 2016. They hosted the fundraiser in memory of their mother, who was a big supporter of the Courageous Kids program.
The guest list was almost entirely women, though there were a few men in attendance, including Campbell Vice Mayor Dan Furtado, who stopped by to thank everyone for their generosity. Courageous Kids will again be hosting around 500 kids with cancer and their families from all over the state at California’s Great America on Mother’s Day, May 11, for the 36th year. You can get more information on the event at www.courageouskidsday.org.
CAMPBELL SCRAMBLE: The 45th annual Easter Eggstavaganza returns to the Campbell Community Center on Saturday morning. The free event, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Campbell, includes face painting, a petting zoo with bunnies, music and photos with the Easter Bunny. Oh, and about 30,000 plastic eggs scattered around the community center’s soccer field that are usually scooped up in less than two minutes by the hordes of basket-wielding kids who make their charge to the opening notes of “Who Let the Dogs Out?” The fun starts at 9 a.m.
Of course, that’s followed by the Bunnies and Bonnets parade through downtown Campbell, which is organized by Bombshell Boutique owner Brooke Ramirez and volunteers from the Downtown Campbell Business Association. It starts at noon at the VTA light rail station at Campbell Avenue.