Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Hampton Inn Facelifts Planned Downtown San Jose Hotel

When Hampton Inn revealed the initial design for their new 162-room Downtown San Jose hotel at Santa Clara Street and Highway 87, you could hear the groans a mile away. It looked completely generic and more appropriate for a strip mall in Anywhere, USA. Personally, I think this original design looks like a convalescent home.

The good news is the second draft looks better, I'll let you be the judge of how much. I like the the improved use of glass in the corners, that is my favorite part of the new design. The textured brown walls are also a step up from the white and gray of the original. I still can't help but to think that they could have Silicon Valleyed this up much more and went with radical colors that would stand out and Aloft-style LED lighting. For something that can easily be seen from Highway 87, people walking from the HP Pavilion, and the San Pedro area... they could still do a lot more.

What do you guys think?

Source: San Jose Development Forum



  1. The designs have changed again... it's no longer only 6 stories but 8.

  2. It's a Hampton Inn. Sorta gross regardless.

  3. It's a Hampton Inn, can't expect too much. Glad it got upped to 8 stories and that that corner will be filled and longer be a parking lot. It also has a retail (most likely a restaurant) which is great for the area.

    I'd like to see a more upscale hotel elsewhere in downtown though, something like a St. Regis or Intercontinental.

  4. IMHO, still quite lackluster.

  5. It's a limited service, low budget chain. The construction costs have to be kept low.

    We are in a real catch 22 downtown. We continually loose major conventions due to the lack of hotel rooms. However transient (corporate) demand is not there yet to support another large hotel. Because the city council, and Mayor, keep promoting North First and not downtown to gain major businesses this will continue to be a problem. We need at least one more MAJOR downtown business anchor, like Adobe. Samsung would have been perfect!
    Until then, this is all we can hope for.

    1. Big tech companies aren't moving to downtown for several reasons (not related to the City):

      1) They like big sprawling campuses (albeit with higher densities now)
      2) The existing supply of commercial space in DTSJ is more suited to professional services and doesn't meet the new standards that tech companies (35,000+ sf floor plates, open offices which allow collaboration)
      3) Most undeveloped lots in DTSJ are owned by a few companies (Barry Swenson, Sobrato, Boston Properties, etc.), hence tech companies would need to deal with them to get somethign new built
      4) The North First corridor is often cheaper than downtown and offers tons of more parking

    2. Agree with anon.
      After Josh I'm perhapst the biggest fan of downtown San Jose there is. That said, I think SJ pols and planners should now focus all major corporate/tech development at N1/NSJ. As has been stated before, our current downtown (The Historic Core) should now be viewed as our entertainment, cultural center with sports, performing arts/shows, restaurants, urban residential and unique retail ala San Pedro Square Market. Downtown (as anon alluded to) could still serve professional services and smaller tech companies/start ups, but N1 should be our focus for major corporate/tech development. Just my opinion.
      (actually Anthony Dominguez; my wife could care less about this stuff)

  6. This Hampton Inn is nice in-fill, but we need more upmarket select service hotels in DTSJ. I'd love to see a Hotel Indigo, Andaz or now that Marriott has announced it, AC Hotel.