SAN JOSE — A long-shuttered movie theater that is undergoing a dramatic transformation will become the future home of an indoor miniature golf outlet that could greatly revitalize that section of downtown San Jose.
Urban Putt has leased about 13,300 square feet in Paseo, a wide-ranging redevelopment and reconstruction of the former Camera 12 movie theater at 201 S. First St. in downtown San Jose. Urban Catalyst owns and is redeveloping the old cinema site.
“Our goal is to activate downtown San Jose,” said Erik Hayden, founder and managing partner with Urban Catalyst, an increasingly busy development firm in San Jose. “This is a great first step.”
Urban Putt has locations in San Francisco and Denver. The San Francisco location features a golf hole in which the obstacle is shaped like a Transamerica Pyramid with a windmill. Other holes feature a skyline reminiscent of San Francisco.
“We can’t wait to bring the custom-built Urban Putt experience to downtown San Jose,” said Steve Fox, Urban Putt’s founder and chief greenskeeper.
The Paseo development will total about 100,000 square feet and feature 75,000 square feet of offices and 25,000 square feet of retail.
The miniature golf company’s lease was arranged by Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers, a commercial real estate firm, according to Urban Catalyst.
“This is one of the most exciting buildings in downtown San Jose,” Goddard said. “The ceiling heights are dramatic. It is ideally placed on one of the busiest walkways in the downtown,” he added, referring to the Paseo de San Antonio.
The rental deal by Urban Putt represents a brand-new tenant and a unique type of business for downtown San Jose.
“Urban Putt could have chosen anywhere to go in the United States, but they chose downtown San Jose,” Goddard said. “They see that the enormous downtown population will presumably come back. There are massive developments coming including Google.”
Google has proposed a new neighborhood of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, entertainment hubs and cultural centers near the Diridon train station where the search giant could employ 20,000 people.
Plus, unique experiences and entertainment venues are only slowly beginning to return to the downtown in the -wake of the coronavirus-linked business shutdowns.
“You have potential business from the hotels and the convention center and there is a massive void of entertainment options for all of those people,” Goodard said. “Urban Putt seeks to capitalize on that and they realize downtown San Jose is the place where they can do that.”
The vast majority of the retail and restaurant spaces in Paseo are either leased or are nearing completed rental deals.
“This is testament to the confidence we’re seeing in the future of downtown San Jose and the strength of this prominent location,” said Josh Burroughs, partner and chief operating officer at Urban Catalyst.
The Urban Putt site in San Francisco’s Mission District is located in a former mortuary building that dates back to the year of the Great Earthquake of 1906.
“Urban Putt transformed the space to reflect a design concept that is part Jules Verne, part Rube Goldberg, while preserving many of the building’s historical elements,” the company states on its website.
In Denver, the miniature golf holes feature elements that conjure up mountainous and stark images of the Red Rocks Park in Colorado.
Both the San Francisco and Denver locations feature dining and drinking areas.
“San Jose will get a fun destination that’s perfect for a broad range of folks, from entire families on weekends to millennials enjoying a night out, from students at nearby San Jose State University to team-building events and company celebrations,” said Fox, the Urban Putt executive.
Fox, a former writer for a tech publication, got the idea for Urban Putt after he and his wife Leslie Crawford began hosting parties in his San Francisco home with a miniature golf theme, a post on the company’s website states.
Guests were encouraged to bring their own customized miniature golf holes to the themed parties. Over time, the events and enthusiasm outgrew the confines of a residence.
In 2012, Fox quit his writing job, founded his company, launched a Kickstarter funding campaign and hired a team of designers and builders with expertise in miniature golf holes. In 2014, the first site opened in San Francisco, according to a post on the company’s website.
“Urban Putt will provide a unique experience for visitors from the South Bay and beyond,” Hayden said. “This is just the beginning of our plans for lighting up the Paseo de San Antonio.”