Outlook
FW: Agenda Item 8.3 - East Santa Clara Senior Affordable Housing Development @ 700 East St.
John Street.
From City Clerk < [email protected]>
Date Tue 2/24/2026 3:28 PM
To Agendadesk <[email protected]>
From: Mike Sodergren
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 1:45 PM
To: The Office of Mayor Matt Mahan <[email protected]>; District1 <[email protected]>; District2 <[email protected]>; District3 < [email protected]>; District4 <[email protected]>; District5 <[email protected]>; District 6 <[email protected]>; District7 < [email protected]>; District8 < [email protected]>; District9 <[email protected]>; [email protected]; City Clerk <[email protected]>
Cc: Mike Sodergren ; Ben Leech • Sally Zarnowitz
Peak, Dana <[email protected]>; Burton, Chris
<[email protected]>
Subject: Agenda Item 8.3 - East Santa Clara Senior Affordable Housing Development @ 700 East St. John Street. [External Email. Do not open links or attachments from untrusted sources. Learn morel Honorable Mayor, City Council Members and Staff,
The Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PAC*SJ) has been tracking this project for many years and fully supports all of Staff's Recommendations for this project which proposes to build 68 new 100% affordable Senior Housing between 30-60% AMI.
Given the housing crises faced by land use agencies across the state, PAC*SJ consistently seeks to support affordable housing projects even when there is likely impact to historic fabric, as is the case with this project. We work with developers to hopefully see the value of integrating historic fabric in the projects whenever possible.
Consistent with this approach to preservation, PAC*SJ wants to acknowledge the commitment made by EDEN Housing, to preserve significant portions of the original 1921 Temple Laundry building as a resource for the project's future residents and the public in general. This is not only an architecturally distinct building but also the perfect backdrop for sharing the story of this building starting with Temple Laundry in 1917 and what it meant to the organized labor movement, followed by the U.S. Army and IBM during World War II, followed by San Jose Hospital.
San Jose was IBM's first west coast manufacturing location making up to 10,000,000 punch cards per day. This was the data storage media of the time in advance of true computing. The cards were used by Oppenheimer and the allies for the recording and tabulation of data of all kinds. The success of this plant led to IBM deciding to establish its first west coast lab is San Jose. At that location, the world's first magnetic hard disk drive was created, and IBM's decision to build lab facilities across the valley.
This housing project has drawn the positive attention of IBM corporate out of New York, and I hope to report back to you more on this in the near future, but for now, let me close by providing an excerpt of a quote from one of the lead scientists out of IBM labs here in San Jose after a recent walkthrough of the 1917,21,28 buildings at this site:
Thanks for your time last week with us, touring the former IBM punch card plant in San Jose. As we discussed, this building should be in the "top five" of historical Bay Area sites with Silicon Valley relevance, with the HP garage in Palo Alto, the site of the Shockley Semiconductor building in Mountain View, IBM's 99 Notre Dame, and Steve Job's garage in Los Altos.
Consistent with the conditions of the entitlement of this project, EDEN and PAC*S] will be working with San Jose's Historic Preservation Officer and others to integrate commemoration of the historic significance of this building and what happened there.
Thank you for our support of PAC*SJ's work to save our historic fabric for future generations to appreciate.
Mike Sodergren
President
Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PAC*SJ)
42A S. First Street
San Jose, CA 95113
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