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Presidio Bay Ventures is proposing a major redevelopment of the former U.S. Geological Survey campus in Menlo Park that would replace office and laboratory buildings with hundreds of homes, new offices, retail space and publicly accessible open space.
Presidio Bay Ventures submitted an initial application on Jan. 30 to comprehensively redevelop the mostly vacated Western Region Branch campus of the U.S. Geological Survey after its operations moved to Moffett Field in Mountain View. Presidio Bay purchased the roughly 17-acre campus at 345 Middlefield Road in 2025 for $130 million.
It is not Presidio Bay’s first mixed-use development in Menlo Park: the San Francisco-based firm built Springline on El Camino Real in 2020, which includes 183 apartments, two 100,000-square-foot office buildings, and a two-level underground parking garage. Its retail and restaurant spaces are home to eateries like Che Fico, Burma Love and Andytown Coffee, among others. Presidio Bay also recently submitted a proposal to construct below-market-rate housing on several city-owned parking lots in downtown Menlo Park.
The proposal for the USGS campus calls for the demolition of approximately 253,000 square feet of existing office and lab space across 16 buildings. In their place, the developer is planning a mixed-use project anchored by housing and office development, along with neighborhood-serving amenities.
The project calls for 670 residential units spread across three buildings that are six to seven stories tall. Of those, 101 units would be designated as below-market-rate housing. The plan also includes about 740,000 square feet of office space, made up of roughly 320,000 square feet of new office development through the expansion one office building and the addition of three new office buildings.
Presidio Bay said it would build 2,639 parking spaces but plans a shared parking strategy and transportation plan to reduce traffic impacts. Of the new parking spaces, 1,221 will be in an underground garage, 826 will be in a “reserve parking garage,” and 582 spaces will be shared between above-ground garages in two residential buildings. There will also be 10 short-term spaces near a new childcare center.
A consultant for Presidio Bay floated offering subsidized transit passes for the site’s employees and financial incentives to use alternative transportation methods or carpool, among other measures.
Open space is another major component of the proposal. Plans call for roughly 3 acres of publicly accessible open space, including a central lawn of approximately 1.5 acres referred to as the “redwood lawn,” as well as a neighborhood dog park. In addition, Presidio Bay proposed building 40,000 square feet of retail and amenities, including a 15,000-square-foot childcare center intended to serve both residents and the surrounding community.
Presidio Bay said it hopes GeoKids, which currently runs a preschool on the site, would take over the childcare facility.
The proposal remains in the early stages of the city’s review process, and any final project would require approval by city advisory bodies and the Menlo Park City Council following environmental review and public hearings, according to the city.
Presidio Bay has already hosted several community meetings and met with city officials.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story stated an incorrect acreage of the USGS site. It is approximately 17 acres according to the application submitted to the city.
This proposal is for another mixed use developments, so not just housing. I don’t see any information on whether the proposed office and retail space would create more jobs than the proposed housing could support. That is important since Menlo Park is already struggling to meet state-mandated increases in housing to address the current imbalance.
If only our own City Council had the capacity to envision a downtown redevelopment on this scale, instead of cramming tall projects into parking lots. The lack of vision is stunning. Menlo Park could become the magnet community in the Bay Area, but not with this council.
@Preserve,
I’m sure the council could envision it – any simpleton can do that. But why envision something that the dozens of downtown owners don’t want to happen, or could care less about, as long as they get their rent checks every month. As Thomas Edison said “Vision without execution (or a path to execution) is hallucination.”
How is the “Willow Village” development going? Is there any plan to start anytime soon?