It’s not very often that we hear of new home development projects in the Bay Area that are 100% dedicated to affordable housing.

But according to the Mercury News, which examined preliminary plans being considered at City Hall in San Jose, Bay Area developer Jemcor Development Partners is looking at the site of a shuttered South San Jose restaurant as its location for a significant new housing project.

The proposed development would sit on an almost two-acre site at 1007 Blossom Hill Road that used to be the location of The Fish Market, a restaurant that had been in operation since 1997 and had to close down in September because of slow sales due to the pandemic.

A rendering from BDE architecture shows a large, six- to seven-story building that could be built on the site and which could contain hundreds of potential housing units. Jemcor’s preliminary plans state that all the units at the Blossom Hill Road site will fit within the threshold to be considered affordable housing. 

Jemcor also reportedly plans to use parts of California housing law SB 330 which will help speed up the approval of the project because it is considered 100% affordable.

Jemcor is based in San Mateo and has been a part of affordable and market-rate housing projects all over California including Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, and San Diego Counties. According to the company’s website, it also has an extensive portfolio of housing projects here in the Bay Area.

The next major hurdle for the project will be whether the City of San Jose will grant a permit that will allow Jemcor to develop the Blossom Hill Road site. So far, neither the city nor developer has not commented directly on the plans, and it’s unclear when the next step could happen.

Stay tuned for updates.