Revived Santana Row becoming a destination

Santana Row, the shopping and housing development so large and costly that for a while it caused Federal Realty Investment Trust to swear off undertaking such projects, now appears to be doing well. The $455 million redevelopment of a shopping mall in San Jose, California, currently boasts 18 restaurants (plus several small, specialized operations such as Peet’s Coffee and Starbucks), and the number is expected to grow. Brooks Brothers is about to join the dozens of upscale stores already doing business along its carefully orchestrated streets. Many of the stores are owned by retailers with only one or two other locations. Planners for the city felt consternation when Federal decided to add the big-box outlets Best Buy and the Container Store to the complex, said Joseph Horwedel, deputy director of San Jose’s Department of Planning, Building, and Code Enforcement. However, those stores have succeeded in fitting into attractive streetscapes. During a tour sponsored by the American Planning Association in March, Horwedel described Santana Row as a “quasi-urban” project with private streets and little in terms of civic buildings — a “faux downtown.” Yet he observed that the 42-acre development has proven highly popular and is providing design lessons that the city is applying in the “real” downtown about four miles away, which continues to add housing, restaurants, and cultural activities but which has trouble supporting retail. In particular, Horwedel praised Federal’s skill in concealing parking garages behind retail and residential uses and in giving streets with large buildings great variety. “They wove a tremendous amount into the project,” he said. He noted that Richard Heapes “played master architect” ingeniously. There were two main architecture firms on project — Sandy & Babcock and BAR Architects. Heapes assigned buildings to each of them, and then enlivened the results by getting one firm to “add to or alter the other architect’s work.” Although the city prohibited “destination” restaurants “like Hard Rock Cafe,” Santana Row has a large complement of dining places, and Horwedel said, “some retail will change to restaurants.” Federal has discovered that restaurants are extremely important in drawing customers to the complex. Santana Row also has a Century Theatre complex, a hotel, and a weekly farmers’ market. The magazine Retail Traffic reported in January that Santana Row “has turned around in a big way, and the mixed-use concept is all anyone wants to talk about.” (Federal is a development manager for the Rockville Town Center, a large mixed-use project that is to open in Maryland in 2007.) According to a recent company projection, Santana Row is expected to attain its original projected yield of 5 percent by next year. Federal told Retail Traffic that restaurants have been achieving sales of $800 a square foot, and retailers have been getting $500 a square foot, with same-store sales rising last year by 15 to 20 percent. Occupancy of the 255 apartments above the shops approaches 100 percent. Horwedel said the company was surprised to discover that many of the tenants are people who live there six months to a year while rebuilding their homes. The apartments have risen sufficiently in value that Federal is starting to convert them to condos, and is expected to build another 256 apartments this year. When completed, Santana Row is allowed to have 1,201 housing units. The apartment section that was destroyed in a spectacular fire just prior to opening in August 2002 has still not been rebuilt. Nor has the cause of the blaze has been determined, Horwedel said. u