About Spartan Village on the Paseo

• What is Spartan Village on the Paseo?

  • Spartan Village on the Paseo will be the newest addition to SJSU’s student housing stock. The project will occupy the south tower of a luxury hotel property adjacent to the Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San José through a lease by SJSU.

    Upwards of 700 beds, in the initial year of operation, will be spread across 264 existing rooms and 11 residential floors, with community amenities occupying the second floor mezzanine.

    Spartan Village on the Paseo will be an undergraduate student housing community for first-years and returning students looking for a different housing options off-campus.

• How is SJSU able to create more student housing?

  • SJSU is entering into a landmark partnership with a private real estate investment firm based in the Bay Area, Throckmorton Partners. Throckmorton Partners recently acquired the south tower of the existing commercial property and will lease the tower to SJSU for a period of time. SJSU will renovate the existing property into student housing with all new amenities, facilities, fixtures and furnishings.

    SJSU has plans to purchase the building after two years of the lease term.

• When will it open?

  • The university plans to quickly renovate the hotel tower and aims to have it open for residency by students in August 2024.

    Housing applications begin March 5, 2024 for the fall. 

• What are the amenities?

  • In addition to housing, the project will have study spaces and lounges; a fitness center; gaming and communal space; a community kitchen; on-site dining; and on-site Residential Life staff and community programming space. The ground floor lobby will be the sole entrance into the community with a staff-managed mailroom and seamless elevator access to all residential floors.

• How will the rooms be configured?

  • There will be double-occupancy rooms, triple-occupancy rooms and, quad-occupancy suites available for students.

    Resident Advisors will live in single-occupancy rooms and Residential Life Coordinators will live in suites. There will be two RAs per floor.

    View the floorplans.

• Will this project have any affordable housing?

  • Spartan Village on the Paseo will have affordable student beds. The exact number has yet to be determined. Rental rates for these rooms have not yet been formally established but the university plans to lease these affordable beds at significantly lower amounts than prevailing rates for conventional student housing on campus. This will ensure students in need are able to access campus-provided housing.

• What kinds of students can live here?

  • Undergraduates, including first-year students, international students and graduate students can apply to live at Spartan Village on the Paseo.

• What are the benefits to this project?

  • SJSU will be able to deliver on its intention to provide more student housing and more affordable student housing near campus and leverage state affordable housing funding to do so. By leasing an already-built tower, SJSU can bring housing online at a far faster rate than building new facilities on or off campus for housing.

    Introducing hundreds of new student residents to the downtown area, still only a seven-minute walk to campus, will mean greater support and patronage for local small businesses, enhanced security and safety in the community, greater vibrancy to the neighborhood, and close proximity for students to internship and job opportunities with global and local companies across a variety of sectors and industries.

• What will be done to ensure residents will be kept safe?

  • Understandably, this location being off-campus presents unique security considerations that SJSU aims to manage with increased University Police presence at all times along the Paseo de San Antonio that supplements future plans for increased San José Police Department foot patrols in the downtown area.

    Access to the tower itself is securely controlled by a fully-staffed single point of entry from the ground floor lobby with existing campus housing access policies to apply to this new property that also applies to existing campus housing.

    Each floor, 11 in total, will have two student Resident Advisors who live full-time on-site. In addition, a to be determined number of professional staff Resident Life Coordinators will also live on-site in their own separate units. University Housing Services will have a presence on-site in offices located on the second floor adjacent to the student dining facility. This is in addition to the staffing of the front desk.

    Extensive improvements are under way to update security systems throughout the building to ensure only SJSU residents and their authorized temporary visitors and designated staff are allowed inside.

• Will staff or faculty be able to live at this new property?

  • Spartan Village is an exclusively student-only residence hall. However, SJSU is working to develop workforce housing for staff, faculty and graduate students one block east of this site, across from the Hammer Theatre Center at the Alquist state office building. Full details on that ongoing redevelopment can be found here.

• Will there be parking?

  • The single biggest advantage of this location is its close proximity both to the main campus and comprehensive public transit in downtown San José that provides residents seamless access to the region and the greater Bay Area.

    While university staff works to identify how parking could be accommodated or identified for some residents, applicants should not expect parking, as a standard amenity, at this site.

    The building is surrounded by several parking garages and parking lots all of which have ample space outside few select events that take place at predictable times of the year. Campus garages also provide ample space outside of the busiest periods at the beginnings and ends of every semester.

    It is a top university priority to encourage sustainable methods of transportation and urges all campus community members to use public transit. As the CSU's only location in the middle of a downtown, SJSU is committed to being an environmentally-friendly neighbor to the community.

    Find out more transit, discounted fares and passes and bike and scooter programs from SJSU Associated Students Transportation Solutions.

• How can I stay updated on this project's progress?

  • Sign up on the email updates page.

Have any questions or concerns not answered here on the website? Email newhousing@sjsu.edu.