A new development of epic proportions is finally expected to break ground later this year in Santa Clara after long delays due to the pandemic, environmental concerns, and legal disputes. The development is called Related Santa Clara, and with its $8 billion price tag, it’s widely considered Silicon Valley's largest-ever private mixed-use project. 9.2 million square feet of new buildings will sit on 240 acres at 5155 Stars and Stripes Drive, just west of the intersection of Great America Parkway and Tasman Drive. Currently, the site includes a golf course, a BMX track, and a landfill which is a huge source of environmental and engineering concerns.
Rendering Credit: Related Santa Clara
While speaking with San Jose Spotlight, Santa Clara Councilmember Suds Jain likened the project to a "Santana Row on steroids," while noting the challenges ahead. Jain said "It's a very complicated thing. How do you put housing and offices on toxic waste?" The solution is to create raised concrete foundations that span about 40 acres. They will essentially sit on stilts that would be built into the bedrock beneath all the buried trash. A sophisticated system would then collect substances like methane and other volatile organic compounds that are known to emit from landfills.
Related Santa Clara was approved in 2016, and a majority of the space in the development will be dedicated to offices. San Jose Spotlight reports that “5.7 million square feet will be office space, 500,00 square feet will be retail, 200,000 square feet will be restaurant space and 100,000 square feet will be for entertainment. It will also include 700 hotel rooms and 1,680 new homes. About 170 homes will be set aside as affordable. In addition, it will include a 30-acre public park.”
The development will be built in phases. As reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in December of 2020, Phase One will feature structures that equate to about a million square feet of space. 440,000 square feet would go to offices with the rest dedicated to 480 hotel rooms, 200 housing units, and commercial space for shops and restaurants. That plan has not changed since that older report. It’s unclear, though, when exactly the shovels will hit the dirt.
Rendering Credit: Related Santa Clara
One of the legal disputes that have stalled the project was a lawsuit by the City of San Jose, as reported by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2016 when Related Santa Clara was called CityPlace. San Jose sued the City of Santa Clara, alleging that the project did not have enough housing to accommodate the 25,000 jobs the project is expected to create. The City of Santa Clara then sued San Jose over traffic problems created by the Santana West development. That lawsuit ended with a settlement that forced San Jose to pay Santa Clara more than $6 million dollars.
