Food Hall main entrance and "coming soon" signs on a building at 82 East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose. (11-29-2023) (George Avalos/Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE — A downtown San Jose food hall being developed in stealth mode by the Uber co-founder may open within weeks as fresh signs appear on the building and final touches are completed inside the hall site.
The new signs show the food hall’s main entrance would be at 82 East Santa Clara Street in downtown San Jose, while the food delivery entrance would be around the corner of the building on South Third Street.
In recent days, people could be seen putting the finishing touches on sections of the food hall. Dining areas, seating sections, cooking stations and sinks were visible through uncovered windows of the building, a direct observation of the site by this news organization showed.
Kalanick, former chief executive officer of ride-hailing company, is the CEO of CloudKitchens, a ghost kitchens enterprise developing the project at 82 through 96 East Santa Clara St. The food hall is being developed on the ground floor of the Odd Fellows building, a prominent downtown San Jose structure built in 1885.
Also visible were a combination of wide-open areas and more intimate sections, as well as multiple rooms.
Limited details are available, even in San Jose planning documents, about the upcoming venture inside the historic building. A modest amount of information, though, has become available.
The San Jose food hall might accommodate 26 kitchens, according to documents on file with city planners. Ghost kitchens are facilities in which food ordered online from area restaurants is prepared and delivered straight to customers.
“This is super exciting,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy. “Activation on a key corner of downtown is needed now more than ever.”
The food hall venture also features a dine-in restaurant that will total about 1,000 square feet and a coffee bar next to the dining establishment, the city planning documents show.
The downtown food hall would be on the ground floor, according to the proposal. Jeffrey Eaton, principal executive with E2 Architecture, is listed as the project architect.
Over the decades, the property has been a boxing gym, a hall for the fraternal Oddfellows group and a furniture store. Now, it’s poised to be the site of a cutting-edge commercial kitchen venture.
In 2018, a real estate venture led by Kalanick paid $7.3 million for the historic building, documents on file at the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office show.
“This is just a great way to show momentum for downtown San Jose,” Staedler said.
Originally published at George Avalos