SAN JOSE — An artificial intelligence incubator could sprout in downtown San Jose, a fledgling effort being pursued by a busy local real estate developer that could strengthen the city’s urban core.
The AI endeavor by developer Gary Dillabough is in the very early stages and there are no assurances that it will actually come to pass.
One thing does appear certain: An incubator for AI companies could produce a significant economic boost for the downtown area.
“San Jose should be the capital for AI development,” Dillabough said at a recent event to discuss the current situation as well as the future prospects for the city’s downtown.
Dillabough made his comments during the Sept. 6 Silicon Valley Real Estate Breakfast hosted by prominent law firm Hoge Fenton.
“We are talking with a potential partner to bring 40 or 50 AI startups to downtown San Jose,” Dillabough said during a discussion about how to spur economic activity in the city’s urban heart.
The idea was quickly embraced by Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers, a commercial real estate firm.
“It would be awesome if Gary Dillabough could get that going,” Goddard said.
Dillabough didn’t identify the partner and didn’t disclose the potential location for the artificial intelligence startup hub.
“Downtown San Jose should be the center of AI Valley,” Dillabough said in an interview with this news organization after the breakfast event.
Three or four potential locations in the downtown are under consideration for the future AI startup hub, Dillabough said.
“If you could get somebody like Y Combinator involved, you would have an instant stable for startups,” Goddard said. Y Combinator is a Mountain View-based technology startup accelerator that launched in 2005.
Business, real estate and political leaders in San Jose have attempted to advance an array of initiatives and proposals as a way to revive moribund sections in the city’s downtown.
“An AI incubator is a brilliant concept, and why not have it downtown,” said David Taxin, a partner with Meacham/Oppenheimer, a commercial real estate firm. “This could be a way to bring more people and more companies into downtown San Jose.”
Downtown San Jose has struggled badly in the wake of coronavirus-linked business shutdowns that chased away office workers, merchants and restaurants from the city’s urban core.
The shutdowns are over and the coronavirus threat appears to be greatly diminished — but downtown San Jose is battling to regain a pre-COVID vibrancy that created lively scenes in sections of the city’s urban core.
San Jose is not alone. Urban cores in many American cities are still struggling, including some in worse shape than downtown San Jose.
Case in point: Downtown San Francisco is locked in what some call a “doom loop” of empty storefronts, shuttered restaurants, ailing hotels, vacant offices, failed shopping malls, homelessness and crime.
“There is a lot more tech talent in San Jose than in San Francisco,” Goddard said. “An AI incubator can create a young and buzzy energy in downtown San Jose. People will want to be around that energy.”
