As real estate companies of significant stature find success here, additional high-end investment will be encouraged. While large, absent landlords sometimes are viewed as lacking local ties, they also bring the wherewithal to finance great architecture that can distinguish one city from the next. San Jose probably has a way to go before achieving such distinction. San Jose's physical boundaries may be clear to those here, but they blur for outsiders with the many communities that constitute Silicon Valley, another imprecise term. Without a separate identity, San Jose cannot achieve unique status, say observers.
Architecture is one route to that goal.
And things are improving. Rockefeller selected San Jose after an absence of more than a decade from California, Mr. Green says. The downtown equity investment followed. It won't be the company's last in Silicon Valley, says Mr. Green, who promises new project announcements soon. It's going to be a 24-hour city.