The city of San Jose is laying out big plans after receiving a large chunk of money as part of a deal with Google which allows the tech giant to build its 80-acre mega campus called Downtown West near SAP Center and Diridon Station. In the spring of last year, Google agreed to give San Jose $200 million to be used for community benefits, in the development deal. Google also gave the city three sites that total almost an acre in the downtown area that will be used to build 240 affordable housing units. According to the Mercury News, the city has so far received $7.5 million from Google and is now allocating $3 million of those dollars to help renters, landlords, non-profits, and to explore more options for affordable housing.
The other $4.5 million will go toward an array of causes like the San Jose Aspires micro-scholarship program which will receive $1.5 million. The city will use $525,000 of the $4.5 million to pay for a new college and career pathways coordinator who will work for City Hall for the next three years. $1.225 million will be allotted for occupational training and paid work experience as well as child care to help people use the new resources.
Gardner Community Center is expected to get a million dollars from the $4.5 million to use for neighborhood programs, and possibly, a brand new facility. The Mercury News reports that the remaining $250,000 will be used “to set up the Community Stabilization and Opportunity Pathways Fund — a community fund of up to $150 million.” That $150 million will also come trickling in from Google over the next several years and will largely be focused on homeless programs. The fund will eventually be controlled by a community advisory committee which still needs to be formed.
The centerpiece of Google’s Downtown West development will feature a whopping 7.3 million square feet of office space which would employ 20,000 workers. It would also contain 4,000 new housing units, 1,000 of which would be labeled affordable housing. There will also be half a million square feet of new retail space and 15 acres of parks and open space. According to a separate report by the Mercury News, the Downtown West development as a whole could reach an overall value of $19 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $1 billion. Construction will happen in phases over the next decade or so.
