What's going well 

The City is building a focused strategy and a refreshed brand — the Make Your Mark Brand Kit — to attract businesses and jobs. 

Challenges     

To compete, the City needs to optimize its commercial and industrial lands to attract priority industries, and raise its profile.

What the City is doing

• Advance business development strategy and retain and optimize employment land development. The City will develop a three- to five-year Business Development Strategy that targets industries where San José has an advantage, and present it to the City Council by March 2027.
• Drive private sector investment. The City will help retain, expand, or attract a total of 5,000 jobs by June 2027.
• Optimize marketing brand. The City will roll out a unified branding and marketing approach to promote San José as a place to invest by January 2027.

Companies need infrastructure that enables them to succeed. 

What’s going well

Major grid and transmission projects are moving forward to expand San José’s power capacity and reliability. 

Challenges

Growing industries need a modern power grid, ready-to-build sites, and supporting infrastructure.

What the City is doing

• Enable employment lands site readiness. The City will create a site readiness strategy for key employment areas by June 2027, starting with South of Mabury and the International Business Park. 
• Support electric grid modernization. The City will coordinate permitting to advance major transmission and substation projects with PG&E and other providers, with two key transmission lines starting construction by August 2026. 
• Advance large energy projects in development pipeline. The City will help move two data centers or other large energy projects through permitting by June 2027. 
• Prioritize electrical infrastructure to support innovation economy. By June 2027, the City will work with PG&E to create a clearer path for businesses that need 5 to 19 megawatts of power. 

What’s going well

Seven new business improvement districts have formed in the past two years to support local commercial corridors. 

Challenges

Small businesses and neighborhood districts need lively, inviting storefronts and public spaces to draw customers. 

What the City is doing

• Enhance downtown placemaking. The City will increase downtown foot traffic by 10% by improving public spaces, outdoor seating, and connections between districts by June 2027. 
• Strength small business ecosystem. The City will help the seven new Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) become self-supporting and deliver their plans by June 2027. 
• Redesign downtown office leasing incentive program. The City will refresh the Downtown Office Leasing Incentive Program by January 2027 and secure five new or renewed leases by June 2027. 
• Advance commercial space readiness and occupancy. The City will build a strategy to partner with mission-driven lenders — community development corporations (CDCs) and community development financial institutions (CDFIs) — to help fill ground-floor commercial spaces by June 2027. 

There is an opportunity to activate San José as the South Bay's hub for sports and entertainment.

What’s going well

The City has a convention center, downtown venues, and a busy events calendar that bring in visitors and revenue. 

Challenges

To attract more visitors, talent, and investment, the City needs stronger destinations and easier event planning.

What the City is doing

• Model partnerships and financing tools. The City will complete feasibility studies for at least three priority “experience economy” projects, such as venues and amenities, by June 2027.
• Support Convention Center optimization. By February 2027, the City will finish three targeted upgrades — sound, lighting, and heating and cooling — and explore funding for more.
• Create a centralized special event permitting and billing system. The City will roll out one central system for special event permits and billing across all City departments by June 2027.
• Attract the next generation workforce to take root in San José. By June 2027, the City will launch targeted online campaigns called “Brain Gain” to draw working-age talent to San José.