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In addition to nearly a million square feet of office space the city of Menlo Park has authorized Facebook to build, the company has indicated it plans to lease the new eight-story office building under construction by the Bohannon Companies at 100 Independence Drive in eastern Menlo Park.
“We have agreed to terms to a building lease at Menlo Gateway in Menlo Park, CA from Bohannon Development Company and are in the process of finalizing details,” said John Tenanes, Facebook VP, Global Facilities and Real Estate, in a written statement. “Facebook will continue to invest in Menlo Park demonstrating our commitment to the area as an active and responsible community member.”
According to news first published by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Facebook has submitted an application to the city of Menlo Park to complete tenant improvements on an eight-story, 206,869-square-foot office building under construction at the Independence Drive site.
The office is part of the Menlo Gateway development project of Bohannon Companies; the project includes the 11-story luxury hotel called Hotel Nia, a parking garage and a 40,000-square-foot fitness center. These structures – which constitute the first phase of the development – are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The second phase of the project will include two other eight-story office buildings totaling 500,000 square feet, at 101 and 155 Constitution Drive, and two more parking garages.
The Silicon Valley Business Journal also cited a source close to the deal saying Facebook is expected to be the tenant at two other eight-story office buildings scheduled for construction in the development’s second phase.
David Bohannon II, CEO of the David D. Bohannon Organization, declined to comment.
I’m pretty sure that building is like 10 stories, not 8.
Not sure how this statement: “Facebook will continue to invest in Menlo Park demonstrating our commitment to the area as an active and responsible community member.” make them responsible???? How about investing in public transportation solutions as a responsible neighbor and company in our community. I guess they don’t care that most of their employees will be spending hours of their time sitting in traffic just to get home to their families. So stupid I just can’t believe this whole thing!
Well, the people of Menlo Park had the opportunity in last election to send a message to council regarding outlandish development. Instead they returned current council.
Echoes of Donald Trump’s base … ignorance and tolerance of policies inimicable to the common man?
Today, it’s ‘in gold we trust’.
They have ruined this town. I simply cannot wait until the. Ext crash and their overbuilding and overconfidence sends them packing.
We have seen this over and over again. Facebook should just look to see who use to be stationed in their main building a few years ago.
Gosh, Facebook is practically taking over every building in this office park. I still cannot fathom what all of those employees do.
” I still cannot fathom what all of those employees do” Really? No clue?
Market domination. Doesn’t seem like a hidden agenda.
See also: Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Google
http://www.mjglass.ca/metaphor/boiledfrog.htm
See also: http://www.piffe.com/stories/camel-nose.php
And where are all the employees cars going to drive ?? The freeways are already jammed as well as the surface streets. Maybe Facebook should be mandated to use commuter buses for all their employees. Each Bus will take at least 100 cars off the freeways
“Facebook should be mandated to use commuter buses”
“Each Bus will take at least 100 cars off the freeways”
Nope. Discounting your exaggeration of average bus capacity, let alone typical load, the building will be used by a lot of people whether they are with FB or not.
And *mandating* the use of mass transit?!?!
Ummm, okay; that’ll go over well with the folk posting here! How about increasing Caltrans funding?
By continuing to allow such overbuilding without mandated transit infrastucture, we are fouling our own nest. This is true county and region -wide. Why aren’t our county leaders mandating that light rail be a part of the overall equation to solving the traffic woes on both 101 and 280?
Are we going to wait until complete gridlock overruns us ever day rather than every third day before we take action?
It is time to have Grand Proposals – because if we don’t solve this, no one will be bringing their business here after 5-10 years. Not only is it too expensive to live, but you can’t get anywhere…..so why bother?
Proposed solutions:
Dumbarton Rail – Connect Facebook to Fremont Ace Trains and Redwood City Cal Train
BART – Get a German or Swiss Boring Machine and run underneath El Camino from Milbrae to San Jose airport
Cal Train – Get on with electrification and ignore HSR
HSR – Run it right up the middle of 101 on elevated tracks. Forget including anyone on the peninsula and go directly from San Jose to SF. Regional infighting and lawsuits can be avoided. The view to the Bay is already ruined by all of the office buildings going up along the 101 corrider. No one will notice.
And there’s more: http://menlopark.org/DocumentCenter/View/14492
Monday night Planning Commission Meeting will hear about Facebook’s request to change its use permit.
Will a company as large as Facebook ever reveal its long range plan? Do we sit passively by and respond to Facebook’s news when it is ready to share it?
Does the EIR completed for Facebook’s phase 2 cover the growth we are now learning about? How many Facebook employees will occupy Bohannon’s office buildings? How will different employee numbers impact traffic, air quality and noise? How with an increased employee population impact the city’s housing deficit?
Planning Commission please ask the probing questions. You represent the residents of Menlo Park
And There’s More Part 2
We just got a post card about a community meeting in Redwood City that proposed this for the space where the mini-golf and go-cart fun land used to be.
This is just north of Woodside Rd and probably includes the old Lyngso property.
http://rwcharborview.com/
If you look at the transit proposal, there is nothing realistic about incorporating existing rail lines for lightrail (although, technically, they are freight lines) or commuting…
Couple this with the redevelopment of the Broadway/Woodside Rd Plaza (5-7 five story buildings) and the new Stanford Medical Admin buildings going up on Bay Rd.- and we’ve got gridlock from Whipple down from Redwood City to Palo Alto…I give the peninsula 10 years and then the whole thing shuts down at rush hour… Today, my glass is half empty.
Maybe it is time to re-visit the Dumbarton Bridge Southern access route. The original could be modified to meet current environmental requirements.
If Facebook wants to invest in the community, they should pay for & man a fire station , police station & maybe an emergency care facilities. Probably if there was an emergency , no services could get to the need be destination because the vehicles would be stuck in their own traffic jams. That would take some heat off the coffers of Menlo Park for that expense.
But the Menlo Park City Council has already approved, as the Lead Agency, the EIR for Facebook and stated that this huge development would have “no significant impact” on fire, police or library services – go figure!!
And supposedly there are no real impacts on housing demand
Tell that to the residents being displaced here in belle haven and in redwood city near the stanford projects and downtown.
The lack of responsible planning is staggering.
For about the 1000th time, Peter Carpenter confuses the idea of environmental impacts with $$$$$. The CEQA law was meant to protect stuff like condor nesting habitat, but he very publicly uses it as an excuse for his fiscal mismanagement of the Fire District. I really CANNOT believe that the District’s counsel lets him post this claptrap, it’s got to be used as evidence the next time something really bad happens?
Menlo Fire needs to fundamentally reinvent itself and stop sending a 40 foot ladder truck when someone is having heart palpitations. Maybe that means buying a few smaller properties for EMT mini-crew bases, which is more complicated than posting self-pitying comments on the Almanac site, but I guess we know which choice Peter will make?
City of Facebook = formerly East Menlo Park
It was never East Menlo Park. It’s the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park. And it’s the northernmost community in Menlo Park.
I though I lived in South Atherton?