The Signia by Hilton San Jose is an 805-room high-rise hotel at 170 South Market Street in San Jose, California, located on the Plaza de César Chávez in Downtown San Jose. The hotel opened on April 7, 2022.

Description

There is a swimming pool and associated deck on rooftop, with a specially designed windscreen to create a microclimate designed to be acceptable for sunbathing and swimming. The analysis of this rooftop environment was carried out in the early planning stages using a computer simulation of air flow in the presence of the then existing and proposed Fairmont structures. There is also an indoor cabana/bar on the rooftop.

History

The hotel stands on the site of San Jose's first Chinese enclave, the Market Street Chinatown, which existed from 1866 until its destruction by arson in 1887. A plaque on the hotel's exterior commemorates the racist attack.

The hotel was planned in the 1980s as part of an urban renewal project funded by the Redevelopment Agency of San Jose, which also included the Silicon Valley Financial Center and Circle of Palms Plaza. Construction of the hotel led to a hasty salvage excavation of artifacts from the former Chinatown. The hotel opened in 1987 as the Fairmont San Jose, part of the Fairmont Hotels and Resorts chain.

The 13-story, 264 room annex was constructed on the site of the historic Hotel Montgomery, that was moved 57 m (187 ft) to the south and restored to what is now the Four Points by Sheraton San Jose Downtown hotel at a cost of US$8.5 million.

On March 5, 2021, FMT SJ LLC (the hotel owners) filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, temporarily closing the hotel while it sought a new management partner and extended the existing mortgage debt. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, occupancy had been less than 7%, and the hotel lost at least $18 million in 2020 and was projected to lose at least another $20 million in 2021, according to the hotel owner. It reopened as a Hilton property on April 7, 2022.