Michael Van Every knows he’s in a race that can’t be won. The race being building enough residential units to keep up with an insatiable demand for housing.
Van Every, a San Jose native, is a persistent person. When he was two-and-a-half years old, he suffered burns over 60% of his body when a water heater at his grandmother’s house exploded. “I have a lot of motivation in me, from my background,” he said. “I like it when I’m faced with fight or flight because I’m going to fight.”
In California, persistence is required to chase these entitlements down. But more importantly, it’s needed to be able to understand the calculus to finance a project and make it happen. So I’m really proud of that, and I’m proud of the people that work here.You have to play the long-game to be successful at TOD, especially if it’s a public-private project.
It started within the downtown but it’s been emanated by some outstanding staff people in the city and its economic development department, its city manager’s office and the planning department. They do a darn good job of processing from start to finish.Challenging locations would be anywhere in the Peninsula. Also, frankly, the city of San Jose.
I think there’s all this concentration on Google, on Downtown and on Jay Paul’s project — and yeah, he’s delivering. But there’s countless other developers who are just proposing things that get written up in the Mercury News or other publications, but the projects that seem a pipe dream. I have seen their projected , and they are not factual.
I’m also a big admirer of Related, the Irvine Company, Essex. All amazing companies, and I have been fortunate to be a partner of Essex on many projects within our portfolio. In Silicon Valley, there will continue to be demand for housing. It’s important that commercial real estate builders do a better job of understanding who their tenants are going to be and where they are building housing.In San Jose, we have 10 City Council districts, and we have a lot of diversity in each of these districts, so you better make sure that you go into a district knowing what product types work and where they work best. I think that’s the biggest thing.
Frankly, the surrounding markets, such as Morgan Hill and even places outside county, such as Hollister, are ready for more compact development.
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