A long-empty office building on Race Street could soon swap cubicles for chemistry labs. A private school operator is pushing a plan to turn the site into a full high school campus for up to 800 students, another sign that San Jose’s office glut is turning into a classroom opportunity.
Proposal Details
The application from BASIS Independent Schools calls for an adaptive reuse of roughly 72,700 square feet inside a three-story office building at 525 Race Street, plus a new one-story, 16,600-square-foot gym. Together, the pieces would create an approximately 89,400-square-foot campus, with offices reworked into classrooms, labs and athletic facilities. Those details were first reported by The Registry.
History On Race Street
This is not the first time the block has been floated for private school use. State environmental filings show that in 2020, Avenues Silicon Valley explored a much larger toddler-through-12th-grade campus on nearby Race Street parcels. The CEQA documents examined several parcels and existing warehouses and offices, highlighting how the area has been on developers’ radar for institutional reuse for a while.
Operator And Local Footprint
BASIS Independent already runs an Upper School at 1290 Parkmoor Avenue, according to the school’s campus information, and project documents indicate the operator plans to lease the Race Street property rather than buy it. The filing also projects roughly 100 staff members on site and outlines a six-to-eight-week summer program, details reported by The Mercury News.
Why It Matters
The proposal lands at a time when Bay Area office vacancies remain elevated and owners are hunting for new uses for underperforming buildings. Analysts and recent market studies note that turning old offices into schools or housing can be a faster and lower-risk move than starting from scratch in a soft office market, a point underscored in a recent analysis by CBRE.
Timeline And Public Review
BASIS has said it is hoping to reach the San Jose City Council for an early hearing in August and is targeting final approvals by December 2027, which would allow construction to start in March 2028 and classes to begin in August 2029, according to The Mercury News. The proposal also outlines traffic mitigation measures that include staggered start and dismissal times, with the first arrivals around 7:35 a.m. and typical dismissals near 4:00 p.m., and sets weekday operating hours from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
