Finance & Business World

A 16-acre office park in San Jose will be redeveloped into a residential community with about 89 detached single-family homes, Trumark Companies said Thursday.

The residential developer said its plan received San Jose City Council approval Wednesday, paving the way for the res-use project.

The future neighborhood of Brookside Estates is located in the Almaden Valley, which lies within the Los Gatos Unified School District.

"While we are in a challenging residential market, the supply and demand dynamic in the Silicon Valley is such that there continues to be a solid market for high quality, low-density housing in top tier neighborhoods," said Arden Hearing, vice president of land acquisitions for Trumark Companies. "San Jose is a supply-constrained market with high barriers to entry and this is one of the last sizable detached communities that will come on line in the foreseeable future."

Trumark said the neighborhood’s proximity to Guadalupe Creek and the associated corridor on its Western edge is one of its most attractive amenities.

The property is currently home to two office buildings, a vacant 123,000-square foot structure and a fully leased 55,000-square foot office, both of which will be removed to make way for new homes. The office buildings and parking lot are currently developed up to, and in some areas encroach beyond, the Guadalupe Creek’s riparian edge line.

"The approval of 89 units will allow Trumark to remove 3.8 acres of asphalt and structures along the riparian edge and restore this land into riparian habitat," said Jason Kliewer, a partner and general counsel of Trumark Companies. "Overall, increasing the average setback from the riparian edge by 72 feet will reduce impacts to the creek and provide a substantial benefit to the environment."

In addition to restoration of riparian habitat, the company also intends to add hundreds of trees and enhance and open up an existing creekside walking trail for public use.

"Brookside Estates is the largest local private habitat restoration in San Jose that we are aware of," said Chris Davenport, senior vice president of Trumark Companies. "The project creates an unparalleled open-space, focused development in a core urban area."

The property is adjacent to another residential development called Campagna, the former site of an IBM research facility that was redeveloped for homes about 10 years ago.

Trumark Companies is in partnership with Brookfield Homes to complete the redevelopment and restoration effort, which will take place over the next two or three years.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

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