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Consultant: Birchwood Elementary best suited to single-user lease; 1–2 year marketing expected
Summary
3 d Strategies described Birchwood as a 9.4-acre campus with roughly 38,740 sq. ft. of permanent buildings and about 20,000 sq. ft. of portables; the consultant recommended marketing to single users such as private or faith-based schools and estimated a one- to two-year marketing period.
Dan Merar of 3 d Strategies gave the board a detailed assessment of Birchwood Elementary, calling it an approximately 9.4-acre campus with roughly 38,740 square feet of permanent structures and about 20,000 square feet of modular buildings.
Merar explained that while the site's zoning is residential (R1), the City of San Jose general-plan designation is Public/Quasi-Public (PQP), which permits or conditionally permits uses such as private schools, faith-based organizations, museums and residential service facilities. "We believe that for Birchwood, the likely pool of prospect or users for the facility, with its current general plan would be a private school, non public school, or faith based organization," he said. Merar recommended marketing the campus broadly but said the district would likely find a better fit with a single long-term user because multiple tenants create entitlement and management complexity.
Merar estimated a marketing timeline of "anywhere from a year to two years" to identify a suitable tenant and noted that, after a tenant is found, entitlement processes (a conditional-use or special-use permit and a conforming rezoning) and subsequent tenant-improvement permitting would add additional months to the timeline. The board discussed neighborhood impacts and expressed interest in ensuring community access to outdoor spaces if the district leases the site.
