SAN JOSE — The proposal was nothing short of grandiose, an “entertainment district” set to be a game-changer for San Jose. That vision has dissolved and yielded to a project with a decidedly mundane mission: a data center.
Shops @ Terra was the name of the ambitious entertainment district, that years ago was proposed for San Jose’s Alviso district on a huge site along North First Street near Liberty Street.
The original plans called for restaurants, shops, two hotels and a Topgolf complex. Topgolf has become a unique entertainment hub that features golf, drinks and dining as its centerpiece. These plans were officially announced in 2018.
Years later, neither hotel has been constructed. Stores, restaurants and entertainment centers have yet to materialize. Topgolf opened in 2021.
Topgolf has been a steady draw as an entertainment, sports, and dining center. Topgolf operates high-tech driving ranges that allow people to hit golf balls equipped with microchips that record distance and accuracy. The venues typically also include dining and drinking establishments.
The owners of the property, a group operating as Terra Ventures, proposed the original entertainment district and secured the city’s approval for the development.
Terra Ventures has now returned to city officials with a radically different proposal that consists of the data center, an adjacent power generating facility and a nearby retail building, documents on file with San Jose planners show.
The data center would be two stories and total about 172,500 square feet, according to a preliminary proposal on file with at City Hall. The three-story power structure would total roughly 174,400 square feet.
It’s also possible a relatively small retail center would be part of the project, but these plans were much more vague than the data center and power complex. The retail building is slated to total 15,000 square feet.
“Details for the retail building will be provided in the future with a separate application,” the planning documents stated.
If the city approves the new data center and power complex project, that would mean nine acres of prime land in Silicon Valley would be used for an information processing hub that would produce minimal employment.
The data center developers — some who are the same individuals who proposed the “entertainment district” years ago — made the case in the preliminary filing that the cavernous information processing complex would fit the planning guidelines for this part of San Jose.
“The project is consistent with the site’s Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan Land Use designation of combined industrial/commercial,” the city documents state. “This allows a significant amount of flexibility for the development of a varied mixture of compatible commercial and industrial uses.”