SJSU vision may revamp downtown San Jose campus, add housing towers

SAN JOSE — Housing towers, new dining spots and hundreds of residences for San Jose State University students are in the works as part of a wide-ranging plan to dramatically revamp the college’s downtown campus.

University officials are eyeing new development projects both on the campus and about a block from the college, according to plans on file with the school.

“San Jose State University is undertaking a renewed campus master plan to guide the physical development of the Main Campus, South Campus and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories,” said Michelle Smith-McDonald, senior media relations director with the university.

The campus master plan’s primary focus is to create plenty more places for students to live, according to university officials.

“The university is prioritizing the creation of housing for students, faculty and staff,” Smith-McDonald said.

Several towers would sprout on the existing campus and stretch along East San Fernando Street between South Fourth Street and South Tenth Street, a general site plan shows. The plan indicates the row of towers on San Fernando Street would rise adjacent to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library.

Overall, the university is either completing or actively planning four major projects as part of the college’s transformation and modernization:

• Campus Village 3, a big expansion of the existing student housing on campus, a project that would add at least 1,000 new student beds upon completion
• Alquist Redevelopment, a replacement of the Alquist state building that’s next to Paseo de San Antonio to create up to 1,000 residential units in a new tower about a block from the university.
• The Interdisciplinary Science Building, which will be the university’s newest academic facility. Totaling 164,000 square feet, the building will focus on faculty-led student research and will contain teaching labs, research labs and collaborative spaces. The science building is slated to open in the fall of this year.
• Spartan Athletics Center at CEFCU Stadium near the corner of South Seventh Street and East Alma Avenue. The modern sports complex totals 55,000 square feet and will accommodate the football, men’s soccer and women’s soccer teams. It will also provide state-of-the-art facilities for all 22 of the university’s sports teams. The center will open this summer.

Campus Village 3, whose principal component is new student housing, is poised to usher in the most visible physical changes on the campus.

“The next planned addition to SJSU’s campus housing brings more Spartans to the core of San Jose’s vibrant urban community,” a post on the college’s site states. The post adds, “1,007 new student beds, a welcome center and a 900-person capacity dining hall will replace Washburn Hall, Joe West Hall and the older dining commons.”

Campus Village 3 is also expected to add 517 affordable student beds to the university’s housing totals.

The first phase of this new housing village is slated to consist of a housing tower with 260 units. The second phase is expected to be a building with 171 units. A welcome center will be on the ground floor of phase one.

Construction of the first two phases is due to begin in the summer of 2024 and should be complete by the summer of 2027, according to a university post.

Near the university is a project now known as The Alquist Redevelopment. This project is expected to create as many as 1,000 housing units on the site of the state building at 100 Paseo De San Antonio next to the Hammer Theater.

“With up to half of the units reserved for graduate students, faculty, and staff and the other half for non-university affiliated renters and tenants, this can become SJSU’s most transformative development project in decades,” San Jose State said in a post on its site.

The Alquist housing complex could have a total cost of $750 million and would be a tower of at least 24 stories, according to a university web page. Construction is expected to begin by the end of 2024 and be complete sometime in 2027.

“Addressing the imbalance between jobs and housing in one of the most competitive markets for either can ensure that SJSU takes responsibility to safeguard the campus community’s long-term stability,” the university stated in a web post.