San Jose -- Tazkatlipoka Danza Azteca dancers, clad in bright sea-blue outfits, and elegant Mariachi players helped the burgeoning southeast corner of San Jose celebrate the opening of the community's first banking center on a lazy Saturday afternoon last week.

Plaza de San Jose, a retail center on the corner of Story and King roads, welcomed a 4,000-square-foot branch of San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank on Oct. 24, alongside large chain stores and smaller Mexican specialty shops. The 16-acre shopping center has added more than 600 jobs -- including 20 at Wells Fargo -- since the Plaza's Nov. 5 opening.

The Story and King neighborhood is the latest beachhead added to the city's battle to reduce retail "leakage." When residents are dissatisfied with San Jose's few retail options, they flock to neighboring Cupertino, Palo Alto and Milpitas, which capitalize on their increase in sales tax dollars. But as retail centers, such as the Plaza and long-anticipated San Jose Market Center, are built, the city could recoup a large share of sales tax revenue it has relinquished to neighboring communities.

The Plaza also promises to be a job-generator for hundreds in the Southeast Side community. Council member Nora Campos -- the visionary behind the $73.5 million project -- wanted to create "more job opportunity" for the community's residents. With the help of the city's Redevelopment Agency, which contributed $39 million, and the Plaza's East Bay-based developer, Blake Hunt Ventures, which put up $34.5 million, the city transformed the area's decrepit, aging strip mall to a safe, booming retail center.

Since most of the area's residents are pedestrians, you'll see a small number of cars in the parking lot. Those who do commute by car park next to enormous pre-Columbian statues the color of sand. As customers walk up to large stores like Walgreen's and Target, they are reminded of the neighborhood's cultural identity by imported tiles in deep azure blues and jade greens that play on traditional Mexican folk art motifs. Red Spanish-style buildings are visible from all parts of the Story and King neighborhood, which is often criticized for poor-performing schools and high unemployment rates.

But these figures may steadily change in the coming months.

One of the center's largest tenants, Target, has created 255 jobs since its Oct. 9 opening and added more security guards to help shoppers "feel safe," said one of the store's managers, Ralph Canchola, who added that 75 percent of the store's clients are Hispanic.

Opposite from Target is FAMSA, the large Mexican furniture and electronics store. When customers who are eager to pick up a 20-inch Sony TV or oak bunk bed frame enter FAMSA, employees, neatly dressed in blue shirts, say "buenos dias" to greet them. The large chain plans to open an additional store in Oakland next year, since the Plaza's store already expects "more than 200 customers each day," employee Leticia Soto said.

Alongside jobs, the Plaza is also adding businesses like Panda Express and T-Mobile, which are expected to open in the months ahead. Small businesses are also visiting Wells Fargo's SBA division, according to branch manager Adrienne Arranga-Bellot, who said two Southeast Side locals closed small business loans last month.

Councilmember Campos said she plans to recruit more small businesses and "recapture the city's dollars" when she unveils her latest project, a retail center whose tenants include large chain stores, in the Alum Rock business district in the coming months.