San Jose leaders sign off on East Side improvement plan

San Jose is moving forward with establishing its sixth business improvement district, giving East Side leaders hope for a thriving economic sector and community going into 2025.

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted in favor of starting the Tully Road Eastridge Business Improvement District, a partnership between business owners and the city to coordinate events to draw more foot traffic. Events include a night market and the first of what will be an annual festival hosted by the Tully Road-Eastridge Business Association last weekend. At the meeting, Mayor Matt Mahan congratulated District 8 Councilmember Domingo Candelas, who represents the area, on a successful inaugural festival.

“We were having mochi donuts, dancing, there was an Ao Dai fashion show, it was awesome,” Candelas said.

Christina Bui, board chair of the Tully Road-Eastridge Business Association and owner of Love Me Knots Bridal, took the lead in helping the East San Jose community form the district. She said the festival was an ideal preview of events yet to come. The association has been chosen to oversee development of the business improvement district.

“We had folks at the festival who have lived around the neighborhood for three decades and they were like, ‘Finally something for our East San Jose community,’” Bui told San José Spotlight. “I was really emotional because nobody’s ever stepped up for us like this before the improvement district.”

The district will encompass businesses along Tully Road between East Capitol Expressway and U.S. Highway 101, including Burdette Drive, Quimby Road and Eastridge Mall. Bui said this will be the city’s first business improvement district in 16 years, and that she’s been working with city officials for a year to help include about 500 businesses.

“There’s some of us who are really micro businesses, so my heart was on them and how much they’re able to pay,” Bui said. “We started off asking what the data is here and luckily, the consultant was able to lay that out and help come up with these numbers so we can be fiscally sustainable.”

Funding the proposed district and maintaining a clean environment requires annual assessment fees. Businesses providing professional services will pay $300, hospitality companies $385 and financial institutions $450. Businesses within the Tully Road-Eastridge Business Improvement District will begin paying fees to the city on March 15, 2025. The fees are expected to generate more than $120,700.

The city will also make payments to the business improvement district starting April 15, 2025.

San Jose has five areas with existing business improvement districts that include the Downtown Business Improvement District, Downtown property-based improvement district, Japantown Business Improvement District, hotel tax district and Willow Glen Community Benefit Improvement District. City officials plan to add five more over the next two years.

Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X, formerly known as Twitter.