In 2016, Super Bowl 50 came to Levi's Stadium. Santa Clara resident Jim Crouch worked the event as a greeter, and visitors kept asking him the same thing. As he told San José Spotlight in 2019, "They wanted to know what to do and where the downtown was and … I said, 'Well, we don't have one.'"
Ten years after that game, the city has put out a formal request for developers to build one. Read the list of what it's asking for, though, and it looks less like a new downtown than the old one rebuilt. The city wants a Franklin Street, a gathering place, and a copy of the Santa Clara Theatre. The first step toward bringing back the downtown Santa Clara lost would remove the small businesses that have kept the block going in the meantime.
What the Wrecking Ball Took
Santa Clara's original downtown sat in about 25 acres bounded by Benton Street, Lafayette Street, Homestead Road and Madison Street. Most of it was torn down in the 1960s as part of the national push known as urban renewal. The redevelopment that was supposed to follow never fully arrived. Speaking to ABC7 News on October 27, Reclaiming Our Downtown co-chair Dan Ondrasek put it simply: "It never materialized. Then, the feds pulled the money."
The best-known loss was the theater at 956 Franklin Street. It opened on November 1, 1927 as the Casa Grande Theatre. After a Streamline Moderne makeover it reopened on June 4, 1938 as the Santa Clara Theatre. According to Cinema Treasures, it closed in 1965 and was demolished in the late 1960s. Ondrasek told ABC7 he watched it come down.
The Franklin Street of that era had everyday places too. A 2017 Mercury News account puts Wilson's Bakery on Franklin near Jackson Street and Wade's Mission Pharmacy at the corner of Washington and Franklin. Mary Grizzle, a co-chair of Reclaiming Our Downtown, told San José Spotlight in 2019 that she remembers going to movies under the theater's marquee, which carried the city's name, and the treats at Wilson's.
The Wish List Reads Like a Map of What Was Lost
On October 1, 2026, the city announced that it was accepting responses to a request for proposals for its land at 900 and 1000 Lafayette Street. The site covers 4.83 acres, which is most of Blocks A and B in the Downtown Precise Plan. Here is what the city is asking a developer to build there, next to what used to stand on the old downtown streets:
| The old downtown | What the 2026 RFP asks for |
|---|---|
| Santa Clara Theatre at 956 Franklin Street, closed 1965 | "A theater re-creating the historic Santa Clara Theater" |
| Franklin Street as the main street, with Washington crossing it | Extensions of Franklin and Washington Streets through the site |
| Wilson's Bakery, Wade's Mission Pharmacy and other street-level shops | Ground-floor retail and retail-ready spaces, plus a two-story food and beverage hall |
| A downtown where people gathered | A town square/arts commons plaza and a cultural arts space |
Ondrasek's version is the clearest one. "My dream is to have that theater sign once again rise up 40 feet and say 'Santa Clara,'" he told ABC7. "This city has been waiting 60 years for the return of their heart."
The same list also carries a modern requirement the old downtown never had. The project needs at least 300 homes, and 25% of them must be affordable to and occupied by low-income households, for 55 years on rentals or 45 years on ownership units. The RFP also asks for parking for the homes and shops, plus extra parking to serve the rest of downtown.
Why the Homes Come First
The housing requirement comes from state law. Proposals have to comply with California's Surplus Land Act. In July 2025, District 5 Councilmember Suds Jain told San José Spotlight, in a story carried by SFGATE, that the 2019 law requires local governments to prioritize affordable housing on public land. He also said a fully affordable development might struggle to deliver the retail the downtown plan calls for.
"People are under the impression that it's up to the city, and it's not really up to the city, it's up to developers who want to develop there," Jain said in that report.
The final RFP threads that needle. It sets a 25% affordable share inside a larger mixed-use project and then stacks the theater, food hall and plaza on top. Every bid will be judged on whether it can pay for all of that. The first round of review weighs each developer's vision and amenities along with its qualifications and financial capacity. City spokesperson Janine De la Vega had already pointed to high construction costs and hard-to-get financing as the main things slowing downtown down.
Who Is Standing on the Site Now
The empty-lot picture of downtown Santa Clara leaves something out. The Lafayette Street parcels still have tenants, and some have been there a long time.
ABC7 named two of them, The Hungry Hound and Frozo's, and reported that city officials expect those buildings will likely be demolished as part of the redevelopment. The Hungry Hound is the burger and pastrami counter at 1000 Lafayette Street. The Mercury News was already calling it a popular local restaurant in 2005. Frozo's is the self-serve frozen yogurt shop next door.
The city has been getting ready for this for a while. In 2025, Jain told San José Spotlight that one step was not renewing leases for tenants on city-owned land in the project area.
Reena Brilliot, the city's director of Economic Development and Sustainability, spoke about the current tenants in the ABC7 report. "There are a lot of mom-and-pop shops that have been around for a long time that we certainly want to pay attention to and to support," she said. ABC7 also reported that several business owners in the area hope they can afford to return if the project moves forward.
So the trade-off is there in the paperwork. The new street-level shops and food hall are meant to bring back a downtown full of small, local businesses. The RFP doesn't say who will lease those spaces, and the businesses already on the site are the ones most likely to be priced out of them.
The Calendar From Here
The RFP sets a few firm dates, and the rest are estimates:
- November 18, 2026, 1 p.m. A mandatory in-person pre-proposal conference for developers at the American Legion, 958 Homestead Road. Any developer that skips it can't bid.
- January 14, 2027, 2 p.m. Proposals close, according to the city's BidNet listing.
- Phase II, no date set. Shortlisted teams submit detailed site plans, renderings, leasing and operations plans, and financial information.
- Developer selection. The City Council makes the final pick. ABC7 reported that officials expect choosing a developer could take about nine months, and that construction is still years away.
For anyone who has followed this for a while, that timeline continues a long line of planning. The city set aside $400,000 for a new precise plan in June 2019. Community workshops ran from October 2015 to November 2017, with Reclaiming Our Downtown, the Old Quad Residents Association and Santa Clara University among the groups shaping the plan. The City Council adopted the Downtown Precise Plan and Form Based Code on December 5, 2023. In July 2025, Grizzle summed up where advocates stood: "I want shovels in the ground as soon as possible." The October RFP is the first time the city has asked developers to put real numbers on that vision.
The Block Before the Blueprints
Until a developer is chosen and buildings come down, 900 and 1000 Lafayette Street will look the way it has for years. The Hungry Hound is still serving its burgers and pastrami, and Frozo's is still running its self-serve yogurt machines next door. Ondrasek told ABC7 about getting a teen burger and then driving downtown as a kid. The full RFP is public on the city's project page for anyone who wants to read what the next downtown is supposed to include.
If you live near the Old Quad or Franklin Street and want to talk through how years of downtown planning and construction could fit your own plans, Noriel Adricula and the Team NL Homes team are glad to listen and walk through your options calmly, one step at a time. Schedule A Consultation whenever you're ready.
