San Jose Plans to Open Part of Complex

City officials and developers of the fire-ravaged Santana Row development promised Tuesday that their $500-million project, conceived at the height of the dot-com boom, will rise as planned and help lead Silicon Valley out of the dot-com bust.

“Although this has had and will have a tremendous economic impact on this project and our city, I am confident that we will move forward and rebuild,” Mayor Ron Gonzales said Tuesday. “It is very, very important.”

City spokesman David Vossbrink said that the planned Sept. 19 opening of another part of the sprawling complex “will have to slip a bit” but that the city is committed to helping it open as soon as possible.

“People want to live here, people want to be here, and we want to get it opened as quickly as possible,” said Steve Guttman, chairman and chief executive of Federal Realty Investment Trust, the project’s Maryland-based developer.

The 11-alarm fire gutted a six-acre section of the development--a 42-acre retail, commercial and residential project designed to become a destination for people from all over the Bay Area.

There were no immediate damage estimates Tuesday, and investigators had not been able to determine a cause because the damaged area was still too hot.

The development was one of the most ambitious projects of its kind in the United States.

“It was a boost to our psyche that we were poised for an economic recovery,” said Jim Cunneen, chief executive of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. “I am devastated.”

Hundreds of job seekers had lined up last month hoping to land one of the about 1,000 jobs that would ultimately open at the mall. The annual sales tax contribution to the city was expected to be “in the millions,” said Paul Krutko, San Jose’s economic development director.

The blaze erupted Monday, spewing 100-foot-high flames.

It was the largest fire in San Jose history, said Fire Chief Manuel Alarcon--and perhaps the most devastating since an 1887 blaze burned the city’s Chinatown and displaced more than 2,000 people.