Adobe announces plans to expand in Downtown San Jose

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo was on hand this morning to celebrate Adobe's announcement that it is building a 4th tower in the city's downtown.

"We are excited Adobe is doubling the size of its workforce here in downtown. It is a great thing for our city, it has been an anchor for us for a quarter of a century," the Mayor said.

The plan includes a foot bridge to connect the current three buildings to the new one. The CEO was also proud to talk about the new construction's sustainability.

"The North Tower is going to be the first electric building- the first of its kind in Silicon Valley, which is going to be powered by clean renewable energy. And like the three towers behind us, it will be LED certified," said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.

Adobe's founder was also at the ceremony and talked about the company's first office in Mountainview that had 3,000 square feet and a dozen employees. When it was time to move, he says San Jose was the obvious choice.

"The city of San Jose was the most welcoming city that we were able to deal with. They were very generous and they helped us,"said founder John Warnock.

Construction actually started a couple of weeks ago but today was the official photo opp with shiny shovels and city leaders. This new building will make room for 4,000 new employees. The Mayor hopes tech workers driving to other parts of Silicon Valley will now consider this company and location instead.

"Adobe chose a site very close to the transit center of our city so it will very accessible for folks without an automobile. Secondly, we know San Jose residents are working at tech companies throughout the valley and if we can provide them a place to work close to home...This is not the case where we are going to see thousands of Adobe employees fall from the sky. These are folks who already live here and they just want a closer commute," said the Mayor.

The building is expected to be completed by 2022.