Cupertino’s largest-ever housing project nears construction start
Construction preparation is expected to begin this summer on Cupertino’s largest-ever housing project at the site of the old Vallco Shopping Mall.
The Rise, a mixed-use housing project, will include shops, offices and 2,400 residential spaces, with half reserved for affordable units. The project was green-lit by the City Council in February and will be built on the 50-acre former mall site at the corner of North Wolfe Road and Stevens Creek Boulevard near Interstate 280.
Sand Hill Property Co, which owns the property, said developers are preparing the site for utilities and infrastructure installation over the summer, with building construction to follow. “Most of the mobilization will be in the fall timeframe, that’s when people will definitely start to notice activity on site,” said Reed Moulds, a managing director with Sand Hill Property,
Residents can obtain construction updates through Sand Hill’s Good Neighbor Program, including alerts about activities such as dust mitigation, material recycling, schedules, traffic control and truck routes
“It’s always been a priority of ours to have good communication with the community and the city,” Moulds said. “We’re going to continue to make that a priority.”
The Rise could potentially be completed by 2028, but Moulds said the timeline heavily depends on the state of the local real estate market. The last couple of years have been challenging for the industry, as companies in the Bay Area and nationwide struggle to find financing amid high interest rates and inflation.
Some developers have decided to delay or scrap projects until the forecast improves, while others have been forced to tweak their projects to make them more inviting for construction lenders. A prior version of The Rise, for instance, proposed buildings with a combination of rental and for-sale housing in tall towers above ground-floor shops and restaurants. Sand Hill modified the council-approved version to include shorter buildings above ground-floor commercial space, or for-sale housing above the commercial spaces — but not both.
The Rise’s eventual completion will help Cupertino reach its goal to add more than 4,500 new homes by 2031.
Efren Flores, owner of Holder’s Country Inn restaurant on North Wolfe Road, which is directly across from the site, said he is looking forward to the project’s completion. Holder’s has been on Wolfe for two years, ever since its original South De Anza Boulevard location burned down.
An influx of new residents moving in to the Rise can help bring new customers and opportunities for Cupertino businesses, he said.
“We’re nearly right in front of it, so we’re going to be getting the noises and dust from construction,” Flores said. “but in the long run, it’s going to be very beneficial for us and other businesses.”
The road to approving the ambitious project has been a rocky one.
A 2018 initial proposal by Sand Hill for The Rise included adding hundreds of more housing, office and commercial spaces alongside a plethora of community benefits, including a new performing arts center, city hall and emergency response center. The development would have been approved under SB35, a state law that requires local governments to streamline housing projects in cities that fail to build enough housing.
That same year, nonprofit group Friends of Better Cupertino, which pro-housing activists accuse of being anti-development, filed a lawsuit against the city questioning the legality of fast-tracking the redevelopment. A Santa Clara County judge ruled in 2020 that the design could proceed. However, other legal challenges and council and resident division resulted in a downsizing that cut those benefits, eventually leading to the current Rise design.
Neil Park-McClintick, president for the local pro-housing group Cupertino for All, said he would have loved to see the space reach its full potential with the initial design. Even though the current design is downsized, the Cupertino native looks forward to having the Rise built.
The Rise “will really be the centerpiece of the city,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to have a more transit-oriented city, and bring in a large amount of jobs and projects.”
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