Developers are clamoring for a piece of the growing Redwood City market with nearly 500,000 square feet of new office projects proposed for its downtown district just last month, according to the city’s community development department.
2075 Broadway
In fact, so much space was proposed that, if approved, it would exceed the amount permitted under the city’s Downtown Precise Plan, said Aaron Aknin, the city’s community development director.
“There’s an overall office cap that we’ve hit as a result of these projects,” Aknin said.
Five projects for Redwood City’s downtown market, comprising 489,000 square feet, were submitted in the span of a few weeks, creating about 173,000 square feet of office space on the docket above the allowed square footage, he said. Another 90,000-square-foot office project will be submitted in the next six weeks, Aknin added.
“It’s a unique situation to be in,” he said. “We went from 50 percent allocation to over 100 percent allocation in a short time.”
“[Redwood City has] a dynamic downtown area, and that coupled with Caltrain access makes it desirable,” said Mark Murray, a principal at Menlo Park-based Lane Partners, which submitted plans in August to build a 180,000-square-foot office and retail property at 2075 Broadway.
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Also among the proposed projects is a plan by Dostart Development Company to replace 12,820 square feet of older commercial buildings and surface parking with a new 136,500-square-foot office building at 601 Marshall St. Amenities will include an outdoor terrace integrated into the top office floor, providing usable indoor-outdoor space, said Mollie Ricker, a principal at Dostart.
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Other Redwood City office projects submitted for review last month include a 70,000-square-foot property at 550 Allerton St. by Premia Capital; a 70,000-square-foot property, including 55,000 square feet of office, at 815 Hamilton by Harmony Capital LLC; and a 61,000-square-foot project at 30 California St. by Windy Hill Property Ventures.
Also included in Redwood City’s office pipeline is Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty Corp.’s Crossing/900 project, featuring 300,000 square feet of office space. The property, under construction adjacent to the Caltrain Station on Middlefield Road, was leased this month to cloud-storage firm Box, Inc.
If all proposed office projects are approved, there would not be enough room under the plan to issue building permits, according to a report by the city’s community development staff. Among the staff’s proposals to accommodate the surge in office projects is a precise plan amendment to transfer some of the retail and/or housing allocation to office use, Aknin said.
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