The IBM Hilltop Above Harry Road Has a Buyer. The Open Space Around It Has No Guarantee Yet.

From the Coyote Peak Trail in Santa Teresa County Park, you can pick out the low buildings of the IBM Almaden Research Center on the ridge above Harry Road. On the county's Santa Teresa guide map, the campus is a block labeled "Private Property" right up against the park's trail network. That block is being sold. An affiliate of Blackstart Digital agreed to buy 650 Harry Road and expects to complete the purchase before the end of the year, The Mercury News reported on Sept. 29.

Most of the attention has gone to the buildings and the word "data center." The bigger long-term question is the grassland around them. Only a zoning designation keeps those hillsides open. No deed or easement protects them. And the first binding rules for any data center on that hilltop will come from a citywide vote this fall, well before a project for the site itself reaches a hearing.

What the August Vote Settled

Until this summer, all 687 acres of the IBM property sat in a single Planned Development zoning district. On Aug. 18, the San José City Council voted 9–2 to rezone two sections of it.

The Mercury News reported that the rezoning brought the zoning in line with the General Plan designations already on the land. At least 30 people spoke at the hearing, and most opposed the change. Councilmembers Rosemary Kamei and Pamela Campos voted no, San José Spotlight reported. City officials said at the meeting that the rezoning by itself did not approve any permit for business activity or redevelopment on the site.

So the vote did two things. It confirmed that industrial use belongs on the 35-acre core, and it zoned the 565 acres of hillside around that core as Open Space.

What the Buyer Says It Plans

The property came up for sale after IBM closed the Almaden research hub and moved its workers to the Silicon Valley Lab at 555 Bailey Road, near Coyote Valley. Data Center Dynamics describes Blackstart Digital as a data center development and investment firm co-founded last year by Chadwick Manning.

The company's own statements to The Mercury News are the clearest description of its plans:

"The campus has seven buildings containing more than 500,000 square feet within its 35-acre industrial-park area, buffered by 500-plus acres of open space we do not intend to develop."

Blackstart told the paper it plans to keep the existing buildings in their current form and that it "intend[s] to expand capacity, subject to power availability." It also listed other possible uses for the campus, including advanced research and development, startup incubators, academic partnerships and quantum computing. For now, the only power figure tied to the hilltop is the 25-megawatt station IBM built, which is what the campus can draw today.

Documents filed with city planners on June 2 set July 2028 as the target for an environmental review hearing and possible decision. In early October, planning staff told San José Spotlight that Blackstart had asked the city in June to finish the environmental review tied to the rezoning, and that the city would decide what level of review applies once it receives an application and scope of work.

Both the company's promise and the city's process point to the 35 acres. The 565 acres depend on a different kind of commitment.

Why the Open Space Label Is Not the Last Word

Residents and conservation advocates have warned that the Open Space designation is not permanent protection. Mayor Matt Mahan said the same at an Oct. 16 meeting of the Santa Teresa Foothills Neighborhood Association, as San José Spotlight reported:

"The thing folks are upset about, rightly, is that when IBM initially built out the campus there, they said that they intended for the open space to be in perpetuity. But … they never created any legally binding easement. Now there is a new owner… we are going to push them as hard as we possibly can to actually adopt a permanent conservation easement."

Mahan told Spotlight he is working with District 10 Councilmember George Casey on the easement and that "I don't think we want to see an expanded footprint." On Oct. 26, The Registry described the two officials as still pressing for that easement ahead of the deal. Casey's October newsletter said he wants any project to meet environmental review and permitting requirements and any new city standards, and that he also wants "to protect the open space from development."

Erik Schoennauer, the land use consultant representing Blackstart, told Spotlight the company looks forward to working with the mayor and councilmember "to determine the best approach to accomplish this goal," adding, "Our project proposes to only use the existing 35 acres of developed industrial park land."

Alice Kaufman, policy and advocacy director at Green Foothills, called the hillsides "part of our regional wildlife corridor." She told Spotlight the best outcome would be to deed the land to an open space district or habitat agency that would manage it for wildlife. Hikers on the Rocky Ridge and Hidden Springs trails see that same slope, with the campus in view.

So everyone involved agrees the open space should stay open, but no legal document yet makes it so.

The Rules That Come Before Any Hilltop Plan

Before the city sees any Blackstart project, it will vote on the rules every large data center in San José will have to meet. Schoennauer told Spotlight that the project will have to comply with these standards. The City Clerk's hearing notice defines a Large Energy Project as one with a power demand of 20 megawatts or more. That threshold is below what the IBM station can already deliver. The same ordinance would make the Planning Director the first decision-maker on permits for these projects, with the City Council hearing appeals.

The draft standards would require:

• Power: 100% carbon-neutral electricity, which a project can meet by enrolling in San José Clean Energy
• Cooling: either 100% recycled water from South Bay Water Recycling or low-water technology, with open-loop cooling on drinking water prohibited. The maximum water-loss percentage is still a blank "XX%" in the draft
• Generators: EPA Tier 4 units, tested no more than 25 hours a year on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and otherwise run only during outages
• Noise: structural controls on outdoor equipment, with generators placed as far from sensitive receptors as feasible. The distance that would trigger yearly noise monitoring near homes is still written as "XXX feet"

The same December hearing covers fees. They include a commercial linkage fee of $5.20 per square foot for data centers and an Energy Reliability Fee of $50,101 per megawatt for Large Energy Projects.

The draft has critics. San José Spotlight reported that they want studies of heat-island effects and low-frequency noise, object to diesel generator emissions, and question giving the Planning Director, not the Council, the first approval. Kaufman told Spotlight that a data center next to open space only has to meet the weakest noise standard in the municipal code. Green Foothills has asked the city to pause data center applications until the standards are adopted.

The Calendar From Here

1. Nov. 18, 6 p.m. The Planning Commission takes up the draft Large Energy Projects policy and the zoning changes that go with it. The city's standards page links the agenda, which was scheduled to post Nov. 10.
2. Dec. 8, 1:30 p.m. The City Council considers Council Policy 6-39, the zoning ordinance and the new fees.
3. Before year-end. The Blackstart affiliate expects to complete its purchase of 650 Harry Road.
4. July 2028. This is the target in the June 2 filing for an environmental review hearing and possible decision on the site.

The conservation easement stays in discussion among the mayor, Casey and Blackstart. Santa Teresa County Park is open year-round and has more than 17 miles of trails, so the campus and the 565 acres around it are visible from the Coyote Peak, Rocky Ridge and Hidden Springs trails while these decisions are made.

DeTar Team is following the Nov. 18 and Dec. 8 hearings and the open space discussion because they bear directly on the foothills where many of our clients live. If you own a home near Harry Road or in Almaden Valley and want to talk through how the hilltop's next steps fit your own plans, we're glad to help. Whenever you'd like a current figure to start from, get your instant home valuation.