New Google San Jose complex could displace small businesses

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- San Jose leaders celebrated last week's announcement that Google was planning a giant complex near the SAP Center and Diridon Station. It will be more than twice the size of Apple's new spaceship headquarters in Cupertino.

But a week later and reality is hitting for some businesses in the area.

Google's plans in downtown San Jose will have a ripple effect. It will bring more jobs and more development, but some businesses will be forced out.

RELATED: San Jose mayor to discuss talks with Google on Diridion station development

"We've been here a long time," said Ed Salcedo with Ed's Scientific Auto Body. He's the place for more than 30 years at its South Autumn Street location.

He's heard other properties are selling, but as far as he knows, his longtime landlord still owns the place, at least for now.

"We haven't talked about that because this is so new. But we will, probably this week. I'll call her and see what's going on," he said.

At a June 20 meeting, the San Jose city council will decide if it will approve a resolution allowing the city manager to move forward with an exclusive negotiation agreement with Google for properties owned by the city and the successor agency to the redevelopment agency in the Diridon Station area. That that includes four properties in the planned ballpark site.

Google also wants the city's fire training property on Park Avenue and Montgomery Street.

At Clack Fit, on South Autumn Street in downtown San Jose, owner Yusuf Clack just found out three months ago that his landlord sold his building to Google's development partner Trammel Crow.

"There's a new landlord, but same exact terms. We just changed where we mail the check and everything's the same," said Clack.

While not much has changed thus far, Clack knows the clock is ticking.

"We love the spot. It was a good run, and we'll try to get the most out of it while we're here," he said.

This is the goal the city has been aiming for, to bringing jobs, transportation, housing and entertainment all to the downtown area.

The project's plans anticipate significant investment over time, with world-class architecture, publicly accessible outdoor plazas and paseos, street-level retail shops, and a public greenbelt and park along the Los Gatos Creek. The development would optimize rail, bus and BART connections, create active pedestrian and bicycle corridors, and promote TDM measures and shared parking opportunities.

"In partnership with Google, we can reimagine Silicon Valley's landscape, by creating a vibrant, architecturally iconic, transit-focused village that provides a model for a more sustainable future, and a sharp departure from the sprawling, auto-oriented tilt-up tech campuses of the Valley's past," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said. "The time has come for us to think boldly about the future of our city's center. Silicon Valley's center of gravity is shifting southward. As we build Diridon to become the busiest multi-modal station in the West, the tens of thousands who will commute here daily will know that they have arrived in Silicon Valley's urban center, and that Downtown San Jose has arrived."

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