152 N 3rd St

152 N 3rd St is a 9-story building in Downtown San Jose with 79% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 177 homes and scores it 81 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CA-18 · Screened 2026-10-20 · Strong candidate

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Where 152 N 3rd St is

Its block in Downtown San Jose, drawn from San Jose's own building outlines and street centerlines.

Suitability score

0–29

30–49

50–69

70–100

Already housing
Not screened
152 N 3rd St

152 N 3rd St and the 1,000 ft of Downtown San Jose around it. The streets are drawn at the width of the right-of-way they run down, sidewalks included, and named, and every building on these blocks is drawn. What is left open and stippled is neither: a surface lot, a plaza or a vacant parcel. The screened buildings are colored by the ramp above, the same one the district map uses, carry their score, and each is a link to its own page. Each casts a shadow as long as its measured height lets it, so towers stand out from the low buildings around them; the unscreened buildings have no measured height and cast none. 152 N 3rd St is outlined in its own score color at the outline it covers at ground level. Its windowless core is hatched. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Floor plan: 79% of each floor sits within daylight reach of a facade. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 5,412 sq ft per floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 55 ft from the nearest window. A–A is where the section beside it is cut.

Section A–A: cut across the depth of the plate, through the middle of the core. Daylight reaches 35 ft in from every facade, fading as it goes, and the hatched stripe left between the lit edges is floor that gets converted and can never be rented: 5,412 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 43,297 sq ft over 8 residential floors. The shaded ground floor is converted like the rest and counted as no homes.

This building does not pencil on its own, but a modeled RESIDE Act grant would close the gap if the building qualified for one.

Every floor carries 5,412 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, seismically braced and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 8 residential floors that is 43,297 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.

Separated from its neighbors. The city’s map draws this building and the ones beside it as one outline with one height. This outline comes from OpenStreetMap, which maps them separately, and its floor count is OpenStreetMap’s.

Modeled conversion metrics for 152 N 3rd St, 2026-10-20.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	81 / 100
Storiesfrom OpenStreetMap, “Saint James Plaza, way 349940723”, in place of the 108 ft LiDAR height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	9
Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint	26,162 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	79%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	55 ft
Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable	5,412 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	177
Conversion cost$405/sq ft all-in on 209,300 sq ft	$84.8M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$9.5M
Modeled RESIDE grantat the statutory per-award cap	$10.0M
BuiltSan Jose does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningDowntown San Jose	DC
Opportunity Zonecensus tract 06085501000, 2018 designation	Yes

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

35 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.

The typical floor has 774 ft of exterior wall, and across 8 residential floors the building carries 6,192 ft of it in total, divided among the 177 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.55: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 22.1 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 152 N 3rd St scores 81 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 79, Interior depth 64, Scale 100, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 152 N 3rd St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency79% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	79	45%	35.4
Interior depthdeepest interior point 55 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	64	25%	15.9
Scale177 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financecompleted value covers conversion cost with 1% to spare, which tops out the component	100	15%	15.0

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 64 out of 100: deepest interior point 55 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 209,300 sq ft of converted floor, or $84.8M in total — about $479K for each of the 177 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 152 N 3rd St: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.

Base conversion cost	$260/sq ft
Seismic retrofit (change of use)	$45/sq ft
Plumbing risers to every unit	$40/sq ft
Operable windows and glazing	$30/sq ft
Additional egress stair	$18/sq ft
Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R)	$12/sq ft
All-in	$405/sq ft

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 43,297 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, seismically braced and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $425K a home, which for 177 homes is $75.2M.

What would have to be true

A $9.5M gap before any grant, which the modeled $10.0M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 1% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $9.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 177 homes finishing at $479K rather than the $425K the model assumes — 13% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $359 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $422K a home. That is below the assumed value, which is why this building counts as penciling with the grant, at market rents — subject to it qualifying under the law's vacant-and-abandoned test, which this data cannot show.

Each of these, moved on its own, would be enough to undo that for 152 N 3rd St:

Single-assumption flip points for 152 N 3rd St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Circulation efficiencythe binding constraint — the least this building would need	1% downto 80%
Average unit size	1% upto 755 sq ft
Completed value per home	1% downto $422K
Conversion cost per square foot	1% upto $262/sq ft

All four are sliders in the survey, where 152 N 3rd St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Jose

152 N 3rd St ranks 16th of the 47 buildings screened here, against a median score of 77.

Its floor plate is better lit than 55% of them, and shallower than 66% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 22nd largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 47 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within the DC zone

15th of 40 zoned DC — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

40 of the screened buildings are zoned DC. 152 N 3rd St ranks 15th of them against a median score of 78. 24 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 59 ft from a facade against this building’s 55 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 8,653 homes. The group’s top scorer is 1 Almaden Blvd, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 601 E Santa Clara St

The screened building closest to 152 N 3rd St in converted floor area is 601 E Santa Clara St: 217,403 sq ft over 10 stories, against 209,300 sq ft over 9 here.

152 N 3rd St scores 81 to its 85, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 64 out of 100 here, 77 there (deepest interior point 49 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 601 E Santa Clara St falls short even with the modeled grant, while 152 N 3rd St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 3,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 152 N 3rd St $10.0M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.

That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.

This building does sit in census tract 06085501000, a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, which Section 201 lets HUD favor — one of the few statutory priorities this screen can actually check.

Other buildings screened near 152 N 3rd St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 130 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

160 N 3rd St
5 stories · 100% daylit · 33 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
about 130 ft away
196 N 3rd St
6 stories · 79% daylit · 73 estimated homes · scores 69/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 230 ft away
96 N 3rd St
6 stories · 86% daylit · 57 estimated homes · scores 78/100 (Strong candidate)
about 370 ft away
156 E St John St
6 stories · 100% daylit · already an apartment building
about 460 ft away

A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.