SAN JOSE — Scott Knies took the reins as executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association in 1988, putting him in a prime spot to witness nearly three decades of change in San Jose’s urban core.
During that stretch, The Pavilion began operations in 1989 as an upscale retail and entertainment complex envisioned to rival Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto. But by the late 1990s, The Pavilion had flopped, its retailers emptied out. The shell was later converted to a server farm amid the dot-com boom.
Yet San Jose’s central business district has overcome that high-profile failure in numerous ways.
Residential and office high rises have sprouted and more are planned, bringing jobs and residents into the downtown. Restaurants, bars and entertainment centers have blossomed, attracting visitors at night and on weekends.
Adobe Systems has based its headquarters in the downtown and is planning to expand there.
Oracle and Amazon’s Lab 126 have established outposts in downtown San Jose.
And in June, Google revealed it was planning a transit-oriented campus of 6 million to 8 million square feet where 15,000 to 20,000 of the tech giant’s employees might work, taking advantage of the emerging transportation hub at the Diridon train station. Google’s interest in the Diridon Station area, a district that Knies calls “GoJo,” would dramatically reshape a large swath of downtown San Jose.
During Knies’ tenure with the San Jose Downtown Association, five different San Jose mayors have governed at City Hall.
The downtown association is a nonprofit, membership-based organization that represents business and property owners. It works to make downtown better for businesses, residents and visitors through events, advocacy and marketing.
This news organization recently interviewed Knies about where downtown San Jose is, and where it’s headed.
Q: What’s your assessment about where downtown San Jose is today?
A: It feels like we are at an inflection point in downtown San Jose. You have the groundbreakings that have taken place and that are being planned, and the Google announcement in June was kind of a major momentum shift.
Q: How widespread is the optimism about downtown?
A: Just talking to the folks on the street, there appears to be a more positive and upbeat attitude about where the downtown is headed.
Q: What is the importance of the new residential?
A: We certainly want the office buildings, but downtown has so much room for a residential population. We had been in a kind of holding pattern for residential towers, but it’s really gratifying to see so much activity now.
Q: Is the residential development downtown going to skew towards high-density towers?
A: Part of the long-term strategy for downtown is we really want to increase the densities. You have to have more people working and living here. With downtown, the zoning is favorable and the development door is open.
Q: How much of a game-changer would a Google village be for downtown San Jose?
A: I’m not sure people understand how big the potential is with Google. Think about how this can transform the entire west side of the downtown, which we call the GoJo District.
Q: What does GoJo stand for?
A: Go is one of the most used action verbs in English and also happens to be the first two letters of Google’s name. Jo is short for San Jose, as in San Jo. We can’t call it Diridon, Diridon can’t be the entire west side of downtown San Jose. We’ve got to brand better.
We came up with better branding for what used to be called the Market Gateway Arts and Entertainment District. In 1989, we came up with SoFA (South of First Area) for the downtown entertainment and arts district.
Q: Would a Google downtown campus change the entire tenor of San Jose?
A: For the last 30 years, San Jose has been trying to get away from the sprawl, thinking more about transit-oriented development, investing in transit infrastructure.
Q: Does Google fit that strategy?
A: Google fits exactly into San Jose’s vision. Google is looking at an incredible daisy chain of properties, from north of Julian (Street) to San Carlos (Street) on the south. Google’s approach is very much an urbanist point of view. This will not be walled off space. This transit village will have parks, paseos, plazas, places for bicycles and pedestrians. San Jose has this incredible topography and potential for an incredible bike culture. People don’t realize how far ahead of the curve Google is.
Q: What do you think about the community group town halls regarding Google?
A: These are prayer vigils and special interest groups that are counting their chickens before they are hatched and trying to extract some omelettes.
Q: What are some of the other major obstacles for the Google village?
A: I believe we are going to get there with the Google project, but the first step is for Google to finish negotiations with this shadow government agency, the SARA Board — the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency — that Gov. Brown helped to create when he banished redevelopment agencies a few years ago.
Q: What about the issues of the height limits in downtown because of the San Jose airport flight paths?
A: We need higher buildings and relaxed height restrictions. You don’t want to squash the buildings down. If you allow more height and density with the buildings, you will have more space for the streets, the plazas, the parks and the open areas. This gift to the airlines in the form of height restrictions comes at a cost as to what we can build in the downtown and what we can accomplish in GoJo.
Q: How are things different now, compared with about five years ago, with downtown San Jose?
A: Five years ago, we and many others were supporters of a ballpark for the A’s in the Diridon Station area. That plan, as we know, went nowhere. If the A’s came to San Jose next week and said they wanted to take a new look at this area, I think we would decline. Google is a much bigger and better investment. TMG is better. Trammell Crow is better. Adobe has been here for a long time, and Adobe had plans to expand regardless of what happens with Google.
Q: Is San Jose finally getting a critical mass of restaurants?
A: Downtown San Jose has always had a strong restaurant scene. We can expand our downtown market as a regional draw. On a recent Saturday night, downtown was rocking. We have a little more than 200 places to eat downtown, but we have a single Michelin-rated restaurant. I think downtown can really up its game, and I’m excited about some of the names being bandied about for new restaurants.
Q: What are some of the biggest changes that could be ahead for downtown?
A: You have Google, the Adobe expansion, BART could be under construction the next few years in downtown San Jose, which is going to connect the downtown to the rest of the Bay Area. You have all the residential and office projects. More restaurants. We have people buying buildings, and the new owners are starting to rehab and re-position some old buildings. We are incredibly excited about engaging our arts community. You are starting to see a very different downtown at the street level, in the way the downtown looks and feels.
Scott Knies profile
Organization: San Jose Downtown Association.
Job: Executive Director.
Age: 59.
Birthplace: Memphis, Tennessee.
Residence: San Jose, Willow Glen district.
Education: San Jose State University, B.A. Journalism.
Family: Married, two sons, three grandchildren.
Five things about Scott Knies
1. He rowed the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon 11 times.
2. He is a former Pacific Coast and Western Intercollegiate Saber Champion.
3. He wishes the Bridge School Benefit Concert was being held this autumn.
4. He is a published poet.
5. He is a vegetarian.
