AMCAL Wins Grand Award for Student Housing Community

The Grad San Jose front elevation of a tall building

AMCAL won the Grand Award for best student housing or faculty housing in the 2021 PCBC Gold Nugget Award competition.

The PCBC Gold Nugget Awards are the oldest and most prestigious design awards in the nation, recognizing those who build and improve communities through exceptional concepts in design, planning and development. The winners are selected by a panel of top industry experts who reviewed nearly 600 entries. The winners showcase the most exciting trends in design, planning and building.

PCBC is the largest home building tradeshow in the Western United States and is dedicated to advancing the art, science and business of housing. Sponsored by the California Building Industry Association and endorsed by the Leading Builders of America—whose membership includes many of the largest public and private home builders in the country

The Grad is a new, off-campus, purpose-built student housing community designed specifically to serve students of San José State University located in the heart of Silicon Valley. The Grad is a 19-story mixed-use residential tower adjacent to a 4-story parking garage topped with an expansive recreation deck. The Grad’s striking high-rise design and unprecedented abundance of amenities is unique in San Jose’s urban center.  The community is the first high-rise student housing building and among the very few built in the U.S.  The Grad San Jose won Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2019 Award for Best Market Rate Residential Project and received attention from the Silicon Valley Business Journal for being the 8th largest construction project in San Jose ranked by square feet. 

PCBC judges reaction to The Grad: “WOW, wish I lived in a college dorm like that! Amongst top contenders in this category, the architecture was interwoven into the fabric of the downtown environment of mid-to-high rise buildings. Without compromising the integrity of the use and purpose, dorm rooms and amenity areas have a ‘resort-hotel’ vibe. A place where you would not miss being away from home.”

The Grad San Jose Ranks #8 on List of Top Construction Projects

Silicon Valley Business Journal Top 8 Construction Projects list

The Grad San Jose was recently ranked the #8 largest construction project by size in San Jose by the Silicon Valley Business Journal. The Grad San Jose is AMCAL Equities, LLC’s newest student housing project near San Jose State University (SJSU).

This article originally appeared in the Silicon Valley Business Journal. Visit that website to read more of the article.

Forbes Magazine features AMCAL’s newest student housing project–The Grad San Jose–as students gear up for a new normal on campus

The Grad apartments living area

Veteran developer AMCAL Equities, LLC, is poised to complete The Grad San Jose in August — just in time for students who will be returning to SJSU in the Fall.

The Grad sits across the street from San Jose State University and is the first high-rise student housing building in San Jose, California. The Grad is a joint venture project with Swenson.

The mixed-use, 260-unit building will include apartments and student amenities. Most floor plans are designed to give students their own private bathrooms. One four-bedroom floor plan will include three bathrooms.

The Grad San Jose will include a three-story parking deck and an amenities deck above the parking deck on the back side of the high-rise building. The amenities deck will include a building with an exercise center, a swimming pool with sundeck, sports courts, picnic area and landscaping. The first floor of the high-rise will include 14,750-square-feet of retail space.

The Grad San Jose was featured in July 2020 in an article in Forbes Magazine. You can read more of the article at that news website.

Downtown San Jose residential tower launch arrives days after mayor touts housing plan

Artist's rendering of The Grad San Jose apartment building with courtyard view

SAN JOSE — October 5, 2017 — The Graduate, a new residential tower geared towards students in downtown San Jose, is poised to be a fresh development venture that can help combat the Bay Area housing crisis.

Developers say The Graduate, an L-shaped project being built at 300 S. 2nd St., is a 260-room high rise a block from the edge of San Jose State University.

The project is a joint venture of San Jose-based Swenson, a realty development and investment firm, and Los Angeles-based Amcal Equities, a long-time residential developer.

“The Graduate will serve as a significant bridge between campus and the SoFA District as well as the surrounding urban amenities of downtown,” said Case Swenson, president of Swenson.

San Jose’s SoFA District is the downtown’s principal arts and entertainment area and stretches along three blocks of South First Street between San Carlos and Reed streets. The new project is between the university campus and the SoFA neighborhood.

This story originally appeared in The Mercury News. Visit that news site to read more.

Pent-Up Demand Causing Student Housing Boom, Expert Says

Photo of Percy Vaz

With thousands of units of student housing underway throughout Northern California, the region is undergoing a mini boom in student housing. In addition to local, private colleges, the Cal State and University of California systems are scrambling to meet demand.

“There has been little to no new student housing built, sometimes for decades until only recently,” AMCAL CEO Percy Vaz said.

While student housing development has been around for years, it was recognized in its own right in 2016 by several financial institutions, and large equity funds are now financing these projects more, according to Vaz, who will be speaking at Bisnow’s NorCal Student Housing & University Development event June 21. He said the returns are similar to multifamily and may be slightly higher.