6.5 MSF Bay Area Project Gets City Nod

Developer Sand Hill Property Co. has received city approval for The Rise, a 6.5 million-square-foot redevelopment of the former Vallco Mall in Cupertino, Calif. This version of the project comes following a substantial modification from the initial 2018 proposal, with new architect Kohn Pedersen Fox at the helm.

The project calls for 24 buildings occupying 15 city blocks near Apple Park, and the commercial side includes nearly 2 million square feet of office along with 226,400 square feet of retail space. The office component is expected to occupy three blocks and will be designed with flexible floorplates to accommodate for potential R&D and life sciences tenants. Most of the retail space will be distributed on ground floors designed for customer-serving tenants and small businesses rather than big-box shopping and entertainment.

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The residential component will span nearly 4.4 million square feet and encompass 2,669 units, of which 890 will be designated as affordable in compliance with city requirements, for low- and very low-income residents. This version of the project features an 11.1 percent increase in the number of units, reaching the maximum allowed under the State Density Bonus Law, along with an 11.7 percent reduction in overall square footage from the plan initially approved in 2018. Much of the decrease stems from cuts to the retail component, which originally spanned 485,900 square feet.

The Rise is also slated to comprise more than 13 acres of open space, including recreational parks and pedestrian corridors, as well as two town squares. The parking count for the development totals 9,570 vehicle stalls, along with more than 3,000 bicycle spots. Plans call for several phases across multiple years, with the residential component being prioritized.

Bay Area development keeps up

Located at 10123 N. Wolfe Road, off Interstate 280, the site of The Rise is some 10 miles from downtown San Jose and 9 miles from the San Jose Mineta International Airport. The mixed-use project will also be within walking distance of the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center.

The Bay Area’s office pipeline totaled some 4.5 million square feet as of January, according to a recent CommercialEdge report. In addition, San Francisco proper had some 6.6 million square feet of office under construction.

One sizeable development underway in the Bay Area is Healthpeak Properties’ Vantage, slated for 1.7 million square feet of life science space at full buildout. The project recently received approval of entitlements for its second and third phases. The developer completed the first phase in 2023, which is now 52 percent occupied by Japanese company Astellas Pharma.