This week I planned a long, but fairly straightforward walk that would take me into Redwood Shores: I wanted to check on the progress of the 200 Twin project, the five-story office building under construction at the corner of Twin Dolphin and Shoreline drives. Because I planned to use the Highway 101 pedestrian underpass to get to the other side of the freeway, I also opted to get some up-to-date photos of the demolition of the Century Park 12 Theatres building. But before I set out, I checked the city’s Development Projects website just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything new. I really didn’t expect to see anything, and thus was surprised to discover not one, but two new entries. One is for the project to construct a new YMCA in Red Morton Park, right next to the under-construction Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center (VMSC). Because the YMCA project can’t get underway until the VMSC is complete (the new YMCA will replace the existing VMSC building, the demolition of which cannot take place until all of the functions provided therein have been moved over to the new VMSC), I have plenty of time to describe what the new YMCA will be like. Thus, I’ll save that for another day — likely, next week (but if you are eager to see the preliminary plans, you’ll find a link to them here).

I’ve been expecting to see the YMCA project appear on the city’s website for some time now. What I wasn’t expecting is the other project that appeared: a 105-unit condominium project planned for a couple of parcels just across Walnut Street from the old Kmart. This project would replace a chunk of the Peninsula Boardwalk shopping center, which I don’t normally think of by that name: I tend to think of as the Kohl’s (or Sports Basement) center. As far as I can tell this new project wouldn’t actually affect either Kohl’s or Sports Basement (nor would it affect the Planet Fitness that stands between them), but it would wipe out all of the smaller retail spaces that face Walnut Street, plus the now-empty Sizzler building on Veterans Boulevard.

So far the developer hasn’t provided much in the way of plans for the 300 – 400 Walnut Street project; what is currently on the city’s Development Projects website is just a basic site plan plus a number of renderings. The site plan shows 14 buildings scattered around the site, each housing a number of condominiums (roughly half of which would be the typical townhouse-style units that have been popping up around Redwood City over the last couple of years):

I am pleased to note that the Redwood City Creek Trail shows on this plan (the creek would run right behind the development); I’m very eager to see the trail, and the linear park that the city envisions alongside the creek (but on the other side, I believe), constructed. While I’m guessing I’ll never own one of these new condominiums, I will certainly get a lot of use out of the trail and the park. Although the trail and park are likely the responsibility of the city to construct, I’m really glad to see that if this new project is indeed built (there is always a chance it won’t be), it appears that the strip of land needed for the trail will be preserved.

Anyway, having learned of this new project, before walking beneath the freeway I spent some time roaming the center, both taking pictures of what is there today and making a list of all of the retailers and restaurants that would be displaced by all of this new housing. This will all come in handy when I end up writing about it, which I’ll do at some future point in time when I have more details about just what the developer hopes to build there. I will note, however, that this project is being proposed under California SB-330, which streamlines the approval process for residential projects that include affordable units (here, 15 of the 105 units would be affordable at the Moderate income level). So this one just may move along faster than some of the other residential projects that are currently wending their way through Redwood City’s approval process…

Moving on to what I originally intended to cover in this week’s post, demolition of the Century Park 12 Theatres building continues at a steady pace. As I passed by the project heading north, I paused to watch the piles of sorted scrap — these days when a building like this is demolished, the various types of materials are sorted into piles for recycling — being loaded onto trucks:

On my return trip, I again paused to study the progress that had been made in the interim. Clearly they had spent some time working on that right-hand “dome”:

From the theaters I followed the pedestrian/bike path that runs between Whipple Avenue and the San Carlos Airport, alongside Highway 101. I then followed Skyway Road out to the airport entrance, after which I walked alongside Holly Street to Twin Dolphin Drive. I then turned north and walked up Twin Dolphin until I reached the 200 Twin project.

As you may recall, the site used to be home to six single-story brick office buildings surrounded by surface parking:

Those buildings are long gone, now. In their place is a large (200,000-square-foot) five-story office building clad almost entirely in glass:

As for parking, that is now accommodated by a five-level parking garage located directly behind the office building:

That garage has 655 parking stalls, and actually has a larger footprint than the office building itself.

Viewed from Shoreline Drive, you can see the end of the garage and the backside of the building (where there is an entrance that I presume is for those folks coming and going from the garage; the building’s main entrance looks to be on the Twin Dolphin Drive side of the building):

The building has a couple of ground-floor patios, and a couple of upper level decks: a small one on the third floor facing Twin Dolphin Drive, two larger ones on the fourth floor, and then, visible in the above photo, a long narrow deck on two sides of the fifth floor (facing the parking garage, and facing Shoreline Drive). Finally, the building has a large rooftop deck, which unfortunately is not visible from the ground. But according to the plans, the building’s elevators go up to that rooftop level, as do the various stairwells.

As you can probably tell, this building isn’t quite done — but it’s pretty close. I don’t know if a tenant has yet been signed, or whether the building will sit empty until someone decides to lease all or part of it. If it is the latter, the interior of the building will remain pretty much empty, with each floor being pretty much a large open space (other than elevator shafts, stairwells, and restrooms), until a tenant can specify how they want that interior built out.

That about does it for this week. It was a long walk — 11.5 miles round trip — just to see an office building, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Next week, unless something else comes up, I expect that I’ll provide more depth on the YMCA project. and I’ll probably check in on the Woodside Road projects once again, since those are all rapidly coming to a close.