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About four years after it was proposed, Greenheart Land Co.’s Station 1300 complex was approved unanimously Tuesday by the Menlo Park City Council.
Greenheart plans to build 420,000 square feet of apartments, offices and retail space on 6.4 acres at El Camino Real and Oak Grove Avenue in downtown Menlo Park. Work at the site is expected to begin “very soon,” said Bob Burke, principal at Greenheart, with building demolition and vegetation removal planned to occur before excavation begins in the spring. Occupancy is expected sometime in 2019, he said.
The plan approved by the council will have 183 apartments, up to about 200,000 square feet of offices, and 29,000 square feet for restaurants, shops or “community-serving” businesses, such as exercise studios or salons.
About 10,000 square feet may be converted into either office or retail space, depending on the market, Greenheart’s principal developers, Bob Burke and Steve Pierce say. There will be a two-story underground parking garage and a small surface parking lot that will have a total of 991 parking spots.
The developer showed a promotional video indicating the project’s plans to give tenants and office workers free Caltrain passes, provide bike parking and promote car-sharing. The developer plans for the buildings to meet high standards for environmental sustainability: the office buildings are expected to be LEED Platinum, the most stringent level, and the residential building will be LEED Gold, the second-most stringent level.
During the meeting, most of the 20 public comments, plus a flood of emails received prior to the meeting, were in support of the project. They included endorsements from a number of environmental and advocacy groups, including the Clean Coalition, Greenbelt Alliance, Bay Area Council and Center For Creative Land Recycling.
Opponents included David Roise, who said he would have preferred the land be developed incrementally and expressed reservations about building parking for nearly 1,000 more cars.
Patti Fry, a Menlo Park resident and former member of the Planning Commission, said she wanted more housing and a clearer definition about how many employees would be working in the new offices.
According to a rough estimate cited in the staff report, there would be between 700 and 900 employees at the offices.
Three buildings are planned – two three-story office buildings fronting El Camino, and one L-shaped four-story apartment building fronting Garwood Way and Oak Grove Avenue. The buildings are designed in the “Spanish Revival” architectural style, with brown and red brick tile roofing and white or tan cement plaster walls.
Because the developer was building at a greater density than would otherwise be allowed, the city negotiated to also have the developer provide the city with a number of public benefits, including $2.1 million in funding for the city; a guarantee of $83,700 in sales tax for the city each year; a publicly accessible and fenced dog park; 10 more apartments to be rented below market rate than would otherwise be required (adding up to a total of 20); and a promise to market the office space for startups.
● Earlier story: Menlo Park city staff recommends approval of Greenheart complex
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A rendering of the development the Menlo Park council has approved at 1300 El Camino Real, with an extended Garwood Way shown in the foreground and El Camino Real running in the back. On the left is the residential complex with an interior courtyard, and the right side shows the public dog park in the foreground with a courtyard and promenade cutting between the two office buildings. (Image courtesy Greenheart Land Co.) -
A drawing of the layout of the 420,000 square foot development that was approved in downtown Menlo Park on Jan. 24. (Image courtesy Greenheart Land Co.) -
A rendering of Greenheart Land Company’s proposed 420,000 square-foot development in downtown Menlo Park at 1300 El Camino Real. The view is from Oak Grove Avenue. (Photo courtesy Greenheart Land Co.)
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Looks like a great project! Looking forward to seeing it completed!
This is GREAT news. Please start digging soon!!!
Has there been consideration to put a movie theatre into this complex?
Gridlock is ahead. The number of workers reported is unrealistically low for incubators. Too bad the Council didn’t push for something like a theater for PLAY. Instead, they approved even more offices and commuters as if gridlock weren’t bad enough already.
Great news. Bye bye unsightly empty lots and defunct businesses!
How sad for Menlo Park residents. There is NOTHING green, nor loving, about Greenheart. Our City Council is serving developers at the expense of the people who call Menlo Park home. There is no more space on the asphalt of our Menlo Park streets to host Greenheart cars during commute times. Gridlock causes road-rage. You wronged us all, City Council.
This will put more cars on the already overcrowded roads.
At least all these workers and residents will stay around Menlo Park to eat at restaurants, get their entertainment, and do their shopping. If not, they will be taking Caltrain to arrive and leave downtown.
Let’s face it. With Palo Alto and Redwood City building like crazy, Menlo Park was bound to get overcrowded from all the cross traffic. It may as well join in and capitalize on the tax revenue from development just like its neighbors have.
Our City Council has — yet again — sold out to a big developer. I completely fail to see why we still bother to have a City Council at all. They have done absolutely nothing good for our city, and are eagerly turning our city into one big and ugly and overcrowded sea of office buildings. Our City Council should be replaced by 5 rubber stamps. That at least would be honest.
It is way past time to change our city’s name to “Menlo Office Park”.
The residents of Menlo Park are tired of all the blight on El Camino Real. The voters are spoken.
M dies in landslide — Daily Post, Nov 5, 2014 http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SFDB&p_theme=sfdb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=1&s_dispstring=NewsBank&p_field_date-0=YMD_date&p_params_date-0=date&p_text_date-0=11/5/2014&p_text_advanced-0=%22M%20dies%20in%20landslide%22
Measure M, which proposed to limit the construction of new offices in Menlo Park, was resoundingly defeated in yesterday’s election by nearly a two-to-one ratio, and the three City Council incumbents who opposed M coasted to reelection.