Plans to redevelop site to residential tower seemingly dropped
A vacant warehouse property in San Jose, California, could be developed into an AI R&D facility.
As reported by Silicon Valley and others, Arena Investors has submitted plans to develop an eight-story AI R&D facility at 199 Bassett Street.
The less-than-one-acre site is currently home to two vacant industrial buildings. The site had long been earmarked for residential development.
KT Urban, which previously owned the property, had considered developing the site into a 27-story multifamily tower called Aviato.
The site was then set to see 803 affordable co-living residences developed by urban development firm Starcity, which bought the property from KT Urban in 2019 for $18 million. The 18-story, 516,000 sq ft (47,937 sqm) tower was set to be the largest co-living building in the world.
However, work never began. Starcity was taken over by Common amid legal troubles and the impact of Covid-19, and several projects were dropped, including the San Jose Development. A $14.74 million loan was foreclosed on in 2021, and the site was taken over by lender Arena Investors in 2022 for just $100,000. Prior to the foreclosure, Starcity had been sued by the property seller KT Urban and C2K Architecture.
Now Arena has filed to develop the site into an eight-story AI Research and Development Facility that would include lab and office space alongside several floors of IT white space.
The existing buildings are set to be demolished and replaced with a facility totaling 281,800 sq ft (26,180 sqm). The basement would include an on-site substation alongside three floors of data halls and two floors of generators. The cooling plant would be located on the roof. It would feature two lobbies and a retail space at ground level.
Further details on site capacity or project timelines were not shared.
The developers would also aim to construct 400 units of housing in downtown San Jose on a separate site, according to planning documents.
Arena Investors, a subsidiary of Arena Investor Group holdings, is an institutional asset manager founded in partnership with The Westaim Corporation. The firm has approximately $3.5 billion of invested and committed assets under management.
