SAN JOSE — In a game-changer for the city’s downtown, San Jose State University housing tower is poised to provide homes for several hundred students when it opens this month, with signs now bearing the name — “Spartan Village on The Paseo.”
“The newly announced housing option for SJSU students truly has it all,” San Jose State University President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said in a university blog post.
The student housing tower could usher in a new hub of vibrancy for downtown San Jose, which like countless urban cores nationwide is battling back from economic maladies exacerbated by government-ordered business lockdowns during the pandemic.
“The transformation of this tower to student housing is exactly what downtown San Jose needs,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “San Jose State has stepped up time and time again when downtown San Jose has needed them to.”
The new housing high-rise is taking shape inside the former southern tower of the Signia by Hilton San Jose, a landmark hotel in the city’s urban core.
Several banners displayed outside the future student housing high-rise feature the SJSU logo accompanying declarations such as “Our Home”, “Our Downtown” and “Our University” outside the new Spartan village.
In November 2023, Throckmorton Partners, a Bay Area real estate company, bought the 264-room southern tower of the Signia Hotel from a group headed up by business executive Sam Hirbod as part of a $113 million purchase, financing and renovation package.
Throckmorton and San Jose State University are heading up efforts to prepare the tower to house students.
The tower, a curving building that’s located on South Market Street next to Paseo de San Antonio, will be able to accommodate about 700 student beds, according to SJSU.
Occupancy has already topped 90%, according to a source familiar with the efforts to attract students.
Spartan Village on The Paseo is expected to be open to students sometime in the middle of August.
A sky bridge lounge, study sections, fitness room, gaming lounge, film and video screening center and a cafe are among the amenities expected to be featured in the new Spartan Village on South Market Street in downtown San Jose, according to a post on an SJSU blog.
One eye-catching feature of the future student housing is a sky bridge lounge that’s expected to be a gathering area for residents.
“The sky bridge over the Paseo will allow students expansive views in either direction while studying or socializing,” SJSU stated in the blog.
The bridge connects directly to the second floor, which will be a crucial part of the revamp and renovation of the property.
“The second floor of what was formerly the south tower of the Signia by Hilton hotel will be completely re-imagined, with expansive dining offerings that residents can access through the purchase of meal plans,” SJSU stated in the blog post.
Staedler noted that SJSU in recent years reopened the Hammer Theatre in downtown San Jose and is pushing forward with plans to replace the old Alquist State Building with up to 1,000 residential units.
“The Hammer Theatre and the future project on the Alquist site shows SJSU has expanded its thinking and continues to deliver,” Staedler said. “The city of San Jose needs to treat San Jose State University as a true partner going forward.”
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