SAN JOSE — A grocery store and a restaurant are among the potential options for the ground floor of two downtown San Jose housing towers whose merchant spaces have never had a tenant.

Nick Goddard, a broker with real estate firm Colliers, has begun to scout for tenants to fill about 32,000 square feet of empty commercial space at 188 West St. James St .

“This is a great location, one of the best downtown,” said Goddard, a Colliers senior vice president. “San Pedro Square is right down the street.”

The 188 West St. James towers, which are owned by an affiliate of Machine Investments, do appear to have a good location, said Bob Staedler, principal executive with the land-use consultancy Silicon Valley Synergy.

“These retail spaces benefit from San Pedro Square’s foot traffic,” Staedler

See Full Page