San Jose’s San Pedro Square is the type of place where you run in to everyone, the type of place that rises to top of mind when you’re deciding where to go out. The bars and restaurants lined up shoulder-to-shoulder on the west side of the street provide a pedestrian experience that other areas of downtown San Jose are still cultivating. But the main feature on the east side of the street is a monolithic, 1,393-space parking garage — which kind of kills the vibe.
In our report The Future of Downtown San Jose, SPUR noted that San Pedro Square is a one-sided retail and entertainment strip. We suggested making the first row of parking on the ground floor along San Pedro Street available for temporary, pop-up uses like food trucks and small-scale retail. When Jason Su (who provided research assistance to SPUR’s report) joined the San Jose Downtown Association, the group decided to take the concept a step further. They submitted the project idea in a grant application to the Knight Cities Challenge and were awarded the grant in 2015.
Four years later, the project — now dubbed San Pedro Squared — has broken ground and is scheduled to debut later this spring. The project converts 12 parking spaces into an entry lobby and four retail spaces that spill out into the street, with custom shade canopies and a protected parklet on the sidewalk.
Jason Su, Street Life Manager at the San Jose Downtown Association, and Blage Zelalich, Downtown Manager at the City of San Jose Office of Economic Development, spoke with us about the goals of the project.
What is the purpose of this project? What problem is it addressing?
Blage: The City of San Jose has renewed focus and commitment to daily public life. The garage offers an amenity to visitors but creates a horrible pedestrian experience with this huge monolith on San Pedro Street. We became a partner because the garage is city property. Public space activation and retail incubation are both equal goals of the project. It brings public life to the forefront, and gives space to small businesses with 200 square foot kiosks.
Retail has typically struggled in downtown San Jose. How does this project address some of the existing problems posed to small retailers downtown today?
Blage: What will make retail successful in this project is that it’s small scale. It doesn’t take a major investment, and it’s in a location of town that’s already very active. For small business owners, it’s a low barrier to entry: There are not a lot of start-up costs associated with the spaces, and it’s in an area that already has a lot of foot traffic.
Jason: The kiosks allow vendors to test out their product with a larger downtown market. They’re not long-term leases, and SJ Made is curating the spaces with their vendors. The idea is to cycle through enough vendors to figure out which ones work, and then have those ones graduate into a larger retail space.
How are you thinking about the vendor mix in the spaces?
Jason: It’s a similar recipe to a mall: There’s a few bigger-fish independent retailers that are very popular with a strong social media following, which will help attract foot traffic for the smaller ones. We’re trying to see if downtown is viable for dry goods retail.
What is your vision for San Pedro Square?
Jason: I’d want it to be less based on dining. Right now it’s a place where you eat, drink and leave. I like the idea of buying something that you can keep as a memory, a keepsake. I want a place downtown where you can go window shopping, a place you can go out alone and not just eat alone at a restaurant.
Blage: Today there’s high-rise housing and more under construction. There’s commercial office space, the Hotel DeAnza, a dog park, a farmer’s market. We are very well on our way to realizing the vision.