[Animo]

San Mateo County ( /ˌsæn məˈteɪoʊ/ san mə-tay-oh; Spanish for "Saint Matthew") is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and Silicon Valley begins at the southern end. As of 2010 the population was 718,451. The county seat is Redwood City. It is among the 20 most affluent counties in the United States, in terms of personal, per capita and household income. It is strongly Democratic and ethnically diverse. The county's built-up areas are mostly suburban with some areas being very urban, and are home to several corporate campuses.

 

[JoshuaSantos]

There are some cranes in foster city just before the San Mateo Bridge. Any clue what these are for?

 

[tecolote]

Anyone knows if the proyect at the saltworks place in redwood City is getting ready for building up or still at hold?, I really like the development, it will bring more jobs, more transportation, more green áreas, more urbanity, more education etc etc.

 

[Cal_Escapee]

^^ http://www.rcsaltworks.com/

See the "In the News" section. Apparently there is concern about the area going underwater due to climate change.

 

[SF1977]

First Homebuilder Buys at Bay Meadows

San Francisco’s Wilson Meany Sullivan has sold its first residential parcel in San Mateo’s Bay Meadows to TRI Pointe Homes. The Irvine-based homebuilder plans to complete its models by the beginning of next year and to begin sales perhaps as soon as September for the 63 town home subdivision in the 83-acre development.

Wilson Meany also is in contract with a second homebuilder for a neighboring site entitled for 93 town homes. That sale is expected to close in the next 30 days. Wilson Meany itself plans to begin construction on a 108-unit apartment complex at Bay Meadows for its own account by the end of this year.

The property sales and vertical development starts mark a significant milestone for the mixed-use community after years in planning followed by the economic plunge of 2008 and 2009. During the downturn, the developer and its San Francisco financial partner Stockbridge Capital Group continued to pour millions of dollars into roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure. That bet now appears to be paying off.

Source and article: http://theregistrysf.com/RTRE_bay_meadows_wilson_meany_tri_pointe_homes_1.html

Source: www.theregistrysf.com

 

[SF1977]

Decision to be made about Block 2 in downtown Redwood City this evening:

Hunter/Storm or Lowe Enterprises to develop Block 2 in Redwood City?
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal by Mary Ann Azevedo, Reporter
Date: Monday, May 21, 2012, 2:47pm PDT
Related: Commercial Real Estate, Redwood City

The Redwood City City Council is expected to make a decision on Monday night as to who will redevelop Block 2, a city parking lot on 950 Middlefield Road.
Five developers were interested in the site but the short list came down to Cupertino-based Hunter/Storm LLC and Lowe Enterprises out of Los Angeles. The two developers have submitted final proposals at the end of March and have been eagerly waiting to hear who will be tapped to develop the 2.3-acre plot.
Hunter/Storm’s proposal involves a $100 million project that will be mainly office on the lot that is adjacent to the Redwood City Caltrain station. Ed Storm, chairman of Hunter Properties – the umbrella company of Hunter/Storm – said his firm’s proposal is to build a pair of multi-story office buildings totaling about 261,000 square feet. The developer also is proposing a 120-room hotel to be constructed in conjunction with Palo Alto-based BPR Properties.
Meanwhile, Lowe Enterprises is proposing 262,000 square feet of office, 145,0000 square feet of apartments and a 140-room hotel. It has tapped Redwood City’s DES Architects to design the project and would work with DPR Construction (also of Redwood City) to build it out if it is tapped to develop it...

Source and article: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2012/05/21/hunterstorm-or-lowe-enterprises-to.html?page=all

A breakdown of both projects can be seen here.

 

[Cal_Escapee]

Nueva to build $70M high school at Bay Meadows
Premium content from San Francisco Business Times by Ron Leuty, Reporter
Date: Friday, August 3, 2012, 3:00am PDT
San Francisco Business Times

The Nueva School, the high-end private school catering to children of the Silicon Valley technorati, wants to build a $70 million high-school campus on the site of the former Bay Meadows horse race track.

Once built, the school would round out the remake of Bay Meadows by master developers Stockbridge and Wilson Meany Sullivan. That vision includes retail, homes, parks and office space for tech companies.

The $70 million cost of the school will be covered by a capital campaign and debt, said Terry Lee, associate head of the pre K-8 Hillsborough school. Nueva has not typically carried debt, he said, and the amount of debt will depend on the total pledged. Still, Nueva officials don’t want the full cost covered by gifts . . . .

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...03/nueva-to-build-70m-high-school-at-bay.html

Bet your high school didn't cost $70 million.

 

[JoshuaSantos]

I went to Bellarmine. Their last project consisting of a single building cost $30M alone: http://www.steinberg.us.com/work/bellarmine-college-preparatory-sobrato-center-humanities-arts

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc...03/nueva-to-build-70m-high-school-at-bay.html

Bet your high school didn't cost $70 million.

 

[Cal_Escapee]

Facebook taps Frank Gehry for large campus addition
San Francisco Business Times by Patrick Hoge, Reporter
Friday, August 24, 2012, 3:09pm PDT

Facebook Inc. unveiled plans Friday for a major campus expansion to house up to 2,800 engineers in Menlo Park that will be designed by the world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.

. . . The company expects to break ground in early 2013 . . . .

Facebook, which relocated its headquarters from Palo Alto to the old Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park late last year, will construct a large, one-room building that "somewhat resembles a warehouse," Katigbak wrote.

"Just like we do now, everyone will sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects," he said. "There will be cafes and lots of micro-kitchens with snacks so that you never have to go hungry. And we’ll fill the building with break-away spaces with couches and whiteboards to make getting away from your desk easy."

On the roof will be a rooftop garden spanning the entire structure. An underground tunnel will connect with the current campus.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfranc....html?ana=e_du_pub&s=article_du&ed=2012-08-24

 

[cardinal2007]

southsanfrancisco.patch.com/groups/real-estate/p/centennial-tower-tenant-success-factors
www.thecentennialtowers.com/web/

Centennial Towers in South San Francisco has had at least 2 tenants since December 2012, having completed the first tower in 2010 (supposedly). The second tower is going to be 21 stories tall and rise up to 319 feet, making it the tallest building in the peninsula, we have to wait and see if the northern peninsula market gets high enough demand for the building to be built.

 

[cardinal2007]

It has been lacking here, but here is an article about Bay Meadows from last May:

www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Urban-village-Bay-Meadows-takes-shape-4526617.php#photo-4635849
baymeadows.com/

I have been to the area around the end of last year, the edges of the area are filled out, but the core area around Delaware avenue looks to be a ways out.

 

[pesto]

It has been lacking here, but here is an article about Bay Meadows from last May:

www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Urban-village-Bay-Meadows-takes-shape-4526617.php#photo-4635849
baymeadows.com/

I have been to the area around the end of last year, the edges of the area are filled out, but the core area around Delaware avenue looks to be a ways out.

Interesting the number of sfh's in the development plus talk about how transit friendly it is. You would think if it were that transit-friendly it would be higher and denser. But whatever helps the morning rush to SV is OK with me.

 

[cardinal2007]

Interesting the number of sfh's in the development plus talk about how transit friendly it is. You would think if it were that transit-friendly it would be higher and denser. But whatever helps the morning rush to SV is OK with me.

I think based on the map it is supposed to be denser in a core around Delaware St., but it doesn't seem like anyone has built out that area. I wonder how long it will take until that happens.

 

[pesto]

I think based on the map it is supposed to be denser in a core around Delaware St., but it doesn't seem like anyone has built out that area. I wonder how long it will take until that happens.

That makes sense. Unfortunately, that just makes traffic worse on Delaware, but that's life on the Peninsula.

 

[cardinal2007]

I'm kind of surprised I missed this, but I did see a big whole where a large parking lot used to be in Redwood City.

Crossing 900 spec office project kicks off in Redwood City

The rumble of a Caltrain passing by was just icing on the marketing cake Friday, as developers and Redwood City leaders turned out to officially kick off construction of Crossing 900, the largest office project in the city's reviving downtown.
"This is so exciting to see this moving forward," said Redwood City Mayor Alicia Aguirre. "The fact that you are doing this and you don't have tenants yet shows how bullish you are on Redwood City."

The 300,000-square-foot, two-building development is a joint project between Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty Corp. and Cupertino-based Hunter/Storm, which paid $17 million to the city for the former parking lot on 2.3 acres. The anticipated project cost is $180 million, and it's the largest speculatively constructed project now underway (though it might not remain unleased for long).

While executives gathered to grab shovels on Friday, crews with Vance Brown Builders have already been working for several weeks at the site. Construction is expected to be complete in 23 months, by summer 2015.

Eli Khouri, Kilroy's chief investment officer, noted that Redwood City, today home to Oracle, was once home to a thriving timber industry thanks to its industrial port on the San Francisco Bay. But he said the city's main raw materials today are the valuable knowledge workers who will eventually occupy the neoclassical-style office project.

This project will be right next to the Redwood City Caltrain, which makes it easily commutable from the South Bay. This will include 300000 sqft of office an 5000sqft of retail. I think this should help Redwood City downtown, though I think they should try to get a residential high rise as well to help with the activity in the evening. Redwood City while by many considered part of Silicon Valley has for quite some time lacked the kind of job concentration of Silicon Valley, except for the EA and Oracle HQ in Redwood Shores which are admittedly closer to Belmont and San Carlos. There seem to be a lot of new office projects in the region which might help Silicon Valley grow north, not as many as the big projects further south, but it seems the growing competition from the big players in Palo Alto, Cupertino and Mountain View is causing a lot of others to be squeezed out. Hence the growth in spec projects.

Supposedly Palantir is squeezing out startups from Palo Alto, driving up the rents downtown there, companies looking for similar have to move to Mountain View, or now Redwood City (Menlo Park downtown is kind of small), or San Mateo (I'm surprised there are no plans there). They could move to San Jose too, but now that is 18/19 miles. (Apigee did that move, but I doubt companies will move that far for the most part)

 

[cardinal2007]

Downtown Menlo Park downtown plan was reviewed in November by the city council there:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking...s-downtown-plan-survives-city-councils-review

Menlo Park's downtown plan survives city council's review with minor tweaks

Although the Menlo Park City Council tweaked some of its elements, the El Camino Real/Downtown Specific Plan emerged generally unscathed Tuesday night after hours of public scrutiny.

Approved by the council in June 2012 after five years of meetings and public debate, the plan is supposed to serve as a long-range guide for construction along the city's main commercial corridors.

But when Stanford University and developer John Arillaga submitted a proposal last November to build on 8.4 acres along El Camino Real, critics complained that the project alone would eat up a substantial chunk of the maximum development allowed by the new plan. The council, however, noted then that it had promised to thoroughly review the specific plan a year or so after its approval.

...

The specific plan envisions allowing 680 residential units and 474,000 square feet of new commercial space over a 20- to 30-year time frame, Senior Planner Thomas Rogers told the council.

The Stanford/Arrilaga development would replace a stretch of mostly vacant car dealership properties from 300 to 500 El Camino Real with a pair of five-story apartment buildings containing 170 units and three shorter buildings with 199,500 square feet of office space and 10,000 square feet of retail space.

And about half a mile away at 1300 El Camino Real, developer Greenheart Land Company wants to turn seven acres into 216 apartments, 194,000 square feet of offices and 16,000 square feet of retail space, according to plans recently submitted to the city.

...

I've actually been surprised that Menlo Park didn't seem to take part of the last boom or this boom in terms of development downtown, but maybe they are just really slow.

 

[pesto]

Downtown Menlo Park downtown plan was reviewed in November by the city council there:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking...s-downtown-plan-survives-city-councils-review


I've actually been surprised that Menlo Park didn't seem to take part of the last boom or this boom in terms of development downtown, but maybe they are just really slow.

Maybe they would strongly prefer not to have ANY further development?

 

[pesto]

I'm kind of surprised I missed this, but I did see a big whole where a large parking lot used to be in Redwood City.

This project will be right next to the Redwood City Caltrain, which makes it easily commutable from the South Bay. This will include 300000 sqft of office an 5000sqft of retail. I think this should help Redwood City downtown, though I think they should try to get a residential high rise as well to help with the activity in the evening. Redwood City while by many considered part of Silicon Valley has for quite some time lacked the kind of job concentration of Silicon Valley, except for the EA and Oracle HQ in Redwood Shores which are admittedly closer to Belmont and San Carlos. There seem to be a lot of new office projects in the region which might help Silicon Valley grow north, not as many as the big projects further south, but it seems the growing competition from the big players in Palo Alto, Cupertino and Mountain View is causing a lot of others to be squeezed out. Hence the growth in spec projects.

Supposedly Palantir is squeezing out startups from Palo Alto, driving up the rents downtown there, companies looking for similar have to move to Mountain View, or now Redwood City (Menlo Park downtown is kind of small), or San Mateo (I'm surprised there are no plans there). They could move to San Jose too, but now that is 18/19 miles. (Apigee did that move, but I doubt companies will move that far for the most part)

Sounds about right. North is more expensive so the big players are likely to look south, but the downtown nodes are great for convenient living (housing, shopping, entertainment, transit and easy parking). You can get to SF or the big employers to the South by train.

Start-ups are hard to plan for since they come and go quickly. You wouldn't want to plan your life around where they are located.

 

[cardinal2007]

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/...rs-queue-up-for-redwood-city-projects-as.html

Developers queue up for Redwood City projects as office cap is neared

If you have an office project you’d like to build in downtown Redwood City, you’d better get in line — and quick.

In the span of just a few days last month, city officials took in four office project applications totaling roughly 425,000 square feet for sites all within a couple blocks of each other. If they were all to be built, they would max out the city’s bank of available office space capacity there and then some.

“We went from about 50 percent to 120 percent” (of available office space allocation), said Aaron Aknin, community development director for Redwood City.

The buzz in office proposals comes as buzz is running high that developers of a large speculative office project downtown are very close to signing one tenant for the entire space. Called Crossing/900, it is the first major Class A office development downtown in years.

...

Looks like activity is picking up in downtown RWC, 1,400 new rental units is a lot for a city in the Peninsula specially. 1,400 new rental units in downtown is going to really bring a lot of people there.

 

[pesto]

Pretty impressive; one more in a string of downtown/transit cores that has come back to life.

The Peninsula is becoming an area where you can live in an active nightlife area and grab transit to another dozen or so similar areas without ever using a car.