The 360 Residence in downtown San Jose’s south First area (“SoFA”) has been through the wringer.  It first arrived in 2007 as the latest and greatest high rise residential condo tower in downtown San Jose.

Over-reaching the market, the builder went bankrupt and the project went on hold for 2 years.  Then it got liquidated to an investor who resumed selling in the summer of last year.  When sales at its nosebleed price points remained dismal, the investor pulled it back and announced it to be high rise rental apartments at the beginning of this year.  Finally it is being leased.

The rents go from $1895 for a 1 bedroom to $11,600 for a penthouse.  The property management company takes a refreshing market tactic that I have never seen before – they put all the pricings, floor plans and availability of every single unit on the web.  Finally, somebody who means business.  You can check it out for yourself here.

One thing I did find amusing is that on many of its marketing collaterals, they market the building to be in SoFA district.  It’s not sofa as in “the couch”.  Supposedly, it stands for South First Area and sounds amusingly like a copy of the SF SoMA district.  While SF South of Market is a huge district, sprawling from the Embarcadero to Eleventh Street, between Market and Townsend, the San Jose SoFA is only a few blocks of one street.  San Jose needs not copy San Francisco in a sad pathetic way.  San Jose is cool in its own sensible, high tech, understated way.