The Graduate Wins the Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2019 Award for Best Market Rate Residential Project

On September 19th, 2019, Developer Barry Swenson was honored with the Real Estate Pioneer of the Year award at Silicon Valley Business Journal’s annual Structures Awards, an event to recognize the best projects, deals, and trailblazers in Silicon Valley. He was recognized along with 24 other award winners at an awards dinner at the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose. The Grad (formerly known as “the Graduate”) won the 2019 award for Best Market Rate Residential Project of the Year!

“This is Nothing Like Your Parents’ Dorm Room”

Below is an excerpt from the Silicon Valley Business Times article, “This is nothing like your parents’ dorm room”, published on September 19th, 2019, by Danny King.

“In addition to addressing the thorny challenge San Jose State students have finding housing in the area, The Grad San Jose will be a far cry from the type of spare, utilitarian buildings many college graduates associate with student dorms — with varying degrees of fondness, of course.

It also serves a new approach to privatized student housing, one that offers shared living spaces, amenities and residential life programming. While the audience for The Grad is college students, the housing will be available to anyone. One caveat — the leases last for 50 weeks, are by the bed and begin at the start of the academic year. Rents include fully furnished suites, utilities, cable, high-speed Internet, and daily programmed activities.

Slated for completion next summer, the $190 million project, which is being built by a joint venture that includes AMCAL
and Swenson, will have 260 units totaling 1,039 beds. In addition to high-speed Wi-Fi and individual study spaces, the 19-story complex will include a three-quarter-acre recreation deck that has a pool, barbecue grills and picnic area, and a Jumbotron, lest anyone wants to take a break from studying. Rooms will feature floor-to-ceiling windows.

Located a block from the San Jose State campus on East San Carlos Street between South Second and South Third
Streets, The Grad will also try to do its part to mitigate potential vehicle traffic by housing storage for 575 bikes as well
as a bike-repair station, offering residents car-free options to get around either the campus or the SoFA District nearby. The building will also include 15,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and commercial space. The Grad’s leasing office
(space will be rented by the bed, not by the room) was set to be open for prospective student-residents starting in
September.

One aspect that makes The Grad unique is that, although the target audience is aimed at students, anyone can apply to
live there. The twist is that leases will run for a fixed 50-week schedule, with everyone moving in and moving out at
around the same time. At least one other Downtown San Jose project similar to the Grad is in the works: An 800-unit coliving
building — said to be the largest such building in the world by San Francisco-based Starcity — that will be geared to tech workers.”