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It’s an announcement years in the works: The federally owned U.S. Geological Survey property at 345 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park will soon go up for sale.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) plans to put the 17-acre property up for sale “in the near future” in an online auction, a GSA spokesperson told The Almanac in an email.
An ad has been posted online on the website Loopnet, and other ads are expected to go up shortly before the sale takes place.
The GSA plans to hold a public online auction, and will issue a sale solicitation package and offer bidders opportunities to inspect the property.
Bidders will also receive information about Menlo Park’s zoning “and other details which will influence any reuse plans for the property.”
“The federal government does not control local zoning and thus any permitted uses will be subject to the city of Menlo Park,” sad the spokesperson in an email.
GSA has already received “multiple inquiries” and is likely to “receive many more once marketing is in full swing,” the spokesperson said in an email. However, it does not release the names of interested parties or bidders to preserve the competitive bidding process and maintain privacy, according to the spokesperson.
The site has, for years, been one that public officials have expressed interest in seeing used, at least in part, for housing – and particularly affordable housing – as the site transitions from federal property to land under the jurisdiction of the local city government.
“Zoning and land use decisions are the responsibility of local government, and once the USGS land is sold, the federal government will no longer play a role in this process. As the City Council works to develop consensus for its future use, I encourage them to include affordable housing for our community as we deal with astronomical housing costs,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Menlo Park) in a statement.
Menlo Park Councilwoman Jen Wolosin, representing District 3, which includes both the USGS property and the SRI International campus now slated for potential redevelopment, said there haven’t been any official conversations about how to rezone the property at this point.
Just recently, developers announced plans to transform the 60-acre SRI International campus, a closed research and office park, into a mixed-use campus with housing that’s more publicly accessible.
Wolosin said in an interview that she doesn’t want whatever comes next at the USGS property to worsen the city’s existing jobs-housing imbalance, and sees the USGS site as an opportunity to provide housing near transit and services. She also noted that she doesn’t want her district to become the only place where new homes are considered in the upcoming housing element discussions.
She added that she does expect the USGS property’s future to be included in the city’s housing element update discussions. As part of a state-mandated process, the city is required to come up with potential locations for more than 3,000 new homes citywide, including a mix of residences at below-market-rate affordability levels.
“It makes a lot of sense for these two sites in District 3 to have a big role, but I don’t think any one district should take all of the new housing or all of the impacts,” Wolosin said. “I think it needs to be a citywide perspective … This site has a lot of opportunity, but it has to be looked at in conjunction with all the other development going on and how our city is being shaped for the future.”
USGS has for the past several years been moving its operations to Moffett Field in Mountain View, where NASA is located.
Under federal law, the GSA is required to charge market-rate rent for its properties, and the USGS was paying about $7.5 million per year for its Menlo Park space as part of a 10-year lease that expired after moving plans were announced. The USGS announced in September 2016 that it planned to move to the NASA Ames Research Park at Moffett Field to save money on rent.
The campus includes 17 buildings and 390,217 square feet of rentable space.
While the USGS staff has been relocating offices, the Public Buildings Reform Board identified the Menlo Park property a “high-value asset” and with other properties, was approved by the Office of Management and Budget to be sold on Jan. 24, 2020, according to the GSA spokesperson.
More information about the sale will be posted at disposal.gsa.gov, and the auction will be held on realestatesales.gov.
Other details, like the starting bid, have not yet been finalized but will be posted at those websites, according to the spokesperson.
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Perhaps someone can explain to me the rationale for the law that requires the GSA to charge rent at the market rate if the tenant is another federal agency. There must be a logical explanation.
The GSA is required to charge market rental rates so that the budget of the agency occupying the space does not get a subsidy from below market rental rates compared to an agency which is renting non-GSA property.
Menlo Park is over-built with office space and high-end housing. I’d love to see a thoughtful combination of truly affordable housing, open space, playground, and public areas, small shops (coffee house, small food shop etc). I’d love to see the whole bloc from Ravenswood to Linfield and Laurel to Middlefield be residential. I know that the economics don’t support low-cost housing, but the morality does. High prices has made this a truly segregated area. Honestly, I long to see people from all cultural, religious and ethnic groups walking in my neighborhood, living next door. How can we teach our children to be more accepting of everyone when their worlds are so white??? This is where we can begin to address some of the most divisive issues in our country.
In particular, I’d love to see an area where our service providers could afford to live, clerks in our stores, housecleaners, gardeners, home care providers not to mention teachers, nurses, police and firemen (and women!). All those folks must travel distances to get here, causing air pollution (they can’t afford electric cars!), further clogging roads and freeways, greatly reducing their leisure time etc.
When I moved to Menlo Park in 1970, several of my neighbors (homeowners) were gardeners. They became my friends, often sharing their knowledge with me, befriending my children and generally adding to the comfort of my neighborhood (Allied Arts). Those homes, which they had purchased for under $20,000 now sell for over $3,000,000’s!!!! My once middle class town has become a town of elitists. That’s OK, but I wish there were more “ordinary” folks as well.
In addition solar panels should be required on all buildings, sufficient to make them energy independent. Just recently I replaced my old solar panels with state-of-the-art panels and a battery backup in my garage. When the power goes out, I don’t know it!
Regarding the SRI site – I’d be concerned about contaminated soil and who is responsible for remediation. Have any core samples been taken? What were the results? I would check underneath the power plant.
There may haven been a problem underneath for former Burgess Theater.
sbs
We had to abandon a housing site in Belle Haven due to contamination.
Stu Soffer