Two weeks ago, I took a long walk through San Carlos. My initial goal was not far: I wanted to check on the progress of the rebuilt fire station along Alameda de las Pulgas. But then I figured that while I was headed that direction, I should keep going and see how many of the other projects in that city are doing. I meant to write about what I saw the Friday after I took the walk, but as I sat down to write, I caught wind of the high-rise apartment building proposed for 112 Vera Ave., in Redwood City. Because that project came out of the blue, and is such a significant departure from what had been underway on that property to date, I decided it was more important to write about the Vera Avenue project instead. Then, last week, I was able to tour the under-construction Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center on Madison Avenue in Red Morton Park, and of course I immediately had to write about that. This week, though, I’m finally getting around to what I saw on my walk through San Carlos — before the information gets too out of date…

First up, Fire Station 16. The replacement for the old station is looking really good:

Previously, the fire station that stood on this spot was a fairly dull-looking single-story building. Although this new one stands out a bit more than the old one did, by going to two levels it makes better use of the property. In particular, it frees up space behind the building, allowing some emergency vehicles to come in off of Howard Avenue and enter one of the building’s two bays from the rear. Note that the other bay still has only one door, on the front: trucks needing to park in that bay will have to back in from Alameda de las Pulgas, as all trucks did with the previous station.

Moving on, I headed over to San Carlos Avenue to get a look at the mixed-use building that has been under construction at 1525 San Carlos Ave. for quite some time now (it was approved by the San Carlos Planning Commission back in October of 2015):

This four-story building, which replaced a single-family home, contains 18 condominiums plus one 740 square-foot commercial space on the ground floor. Of those 18 residential units, three will be designated as affordable, one at the Low income level and two at the Moderate income level. And as you can see, it is nearly done.

When the 1525 San Carlos Ave. project was proposed, I wondered about the commercial space, and whether it would get a tenant, or just sit empty. As yet I’ve heard nothing about the commercial space in this new building. However, I was interested to see that just next door (to the left), another recently constructed mixed-use building with condos above and a commercial space on the ground floor managed to lease out its commercial space:

I’m not quite sure what a “Medical Spa” is, but I take this as a hopeful sign for its soon-to-be-completed neighbor.

I next made it a point to drop by 626 Walnut St., where back in 2020 the city approved a five-story mixed-use project containing 35 condominiums (four below market: one at the Moderate income level and three at the Low level) plus two commercial spaces totaling 1,450 square feet. The project — which has yet to get started, making me wonder if it ever will — would consume three parcels: one containing a small two-story apartment building, one containing a single-story commercial space, and, at the right, a two-story commercial building:

From there, it was an easy walk over to Cherry Street, just west of Laurel Street, where an affordable housing project — Cherry Street Commons — is scheduled to rise:

The project will actually consume two parcels: the one behind the green construction fencing, where an optometry firm operated for years, and the two-story, six-unit apartment building visible to the left side in the above image. The intent is to construct a new five-story apartment building with 33 affordable units on the combined parcels. Just under half of the units will have one bedroom. Nine others will have two bedrooms, and the remaining nine will have three. All of the apartments will be made affordable to moderate- and lower-income households. There will also be a manager’s unit, a large community room with a community kitchen and media area, on-site laundry facilities, and offices for management. The building’s second floor will have both an outdoor gathering space and a small children’s playground. Parking will be accommodated by an internal garage, accessed from the adjacent alley (which will be straightened out), with room for 21 vehicles.

Next on my walk was a visit to 560 El Camino Real, which for years was an Applewood Pizza restaurant (and an adjacent business or two) but which sat unused for a number of years. This project finally got underway in 2022, when the old buildings were finally demolished. Construction proceeded fairly slowly for a while, but the building now has assumed its final form, and the exterior finishes are soon to be applied:

When complete, this four-story building will contain 24 for-sale condominiums (two below market rate) and two ground-floor commercial spaces facing El Camino. The building’s internal garage will have room for 35 vehicles, and will be accessed from the alley that runs behind the building.

Those being the more interesting projects in San Carlos’ downtown area, I then walked along Holly Street out to Industrial Rd., where the large Portal 405 building is rapidly rising behind San Carlos’ In-N-Out Burger restaurant:

To get a better look at the building I walked over to the Palo Alto Medical facility, where I could see the project from a different angle:

This will just be the latest in San Carlos’ fast-growing stable of life-sciences buildings. The 240,000-square-foot building will be six stories tall, with four “occupiable floors” above two above-ground and two below-ground parking levels. The building’s location right at the Holly Street exit from Highway 101 is a good one; it should make a nice impression both to those driving by on the freeway and those getting off at Holly to enter the city.

Next it was time to head down Industrial Road, first to check on the life-sciences building that has been constructed on the remains of the San Carlos Honda building. This new building appears nearly complete, and looks very much like the renderings that the developer provided when the project was proposed. I still find it amazing that the bones of the Honda dealership building lie within this new building, and yet it looks absolutely nothing like what was there before. In any case, here is what the building now looks like from Industrial Road:

Like 405 Industrial, the 777 Industrial Rd. project sits along Highway 101. And as you can see, it, too, sits behind another business — in this case, a dance studio. This project’s most unusual feature is its parking: for environmental reasons an underground garage was out of the question, so the ground-level parking that was a key feature of the Honda dealership was preserved: the new building’s ground floor is pretty much all parking garage, with room for 65 cars and 9 motorcycles. An additional 46 spaces will be located out in the open around the building. And then there are the car stackers. A whopping 108 vehicles can be accommodated in three giant side-by-side stackers, all of which are joined into a single large open-mesh block:

(In this picture, the stackers are in the big thing towards the back; the small screened structure at the left side of the image is not part of the parking system.)

Fascinating stuff. It just goes to show what lengths to which some developers will go in order to get their project approved…

Getting back to my walk, the next life-sciences project I came to is located at 1091 Industrial Rd., at the corner of Industrial and Brittan Avenue. This one seems at long last to be done, but as yet it appears to be empty. Hopefully the building’s owner will have luck leasing out the three-story building’s 173,000 square feet of space. It certainly is a good looking thing:

Just around the corner, at 1030 Brittan Ave., the full outline of what will eventually be a three-story research and development lab and office building with one level of below-grade parking can now be seen:

The building’s single level of underground parking is combined with some amount of internal ground-level parking, for a total of 238 spaces. Most of the building’s lab/office space will be on the upper two floors, although there will be some, plus a lobby, on the ground floor facing the street.

That was about it for my most recent excursion through San Carlos. Just before I stepped back into Redwood City, however, I checked in on Noshery, and confirmed that, sadly, their San Carlos location has closed:

According to a sign affixed to their door, they lost their lease. So if you enjoyed the variety of items they produced from their little kitchen down at the far end of Laurel Street (my wife and I did), well, you can either go all the way to San Mateo (where their remaining location is still operating) or you can order for delivery. Here’s hoping that Noshery finds a new location somewhere close by.