Development projects all around Redwood City continue to make good progress, as I saw when out walking this week. The hotel project underway at the corner of Veterans Boulevard and Brewster Avenue, for instance, has “topped out”; although some framing continues in the rear, from Veterans Boulevard the structure you see today is the extent of what the hotel will be when completed:

As you can see when you view the back side of the building from Brewster Avenue, some framing is still underway:

However, this project will go no higher; it is to be a four-story building, with all of the hotel’s 91 rooms on the upper three floors. I’m still amazed that they managed to squeeze this thing onto a parcel that formerly housed a fairly run-of-the-mill gas station.

Across the freeway, on East Bayshore Road, the first of the two apartment buildings that will eventually stand where the Century Park 12 Theatres used to be located is making fine progress. Both of the five-story apartment buildings (only one of which is currently underway) are designed such that the apartments wrap almost entirely around full-height central parking garages. Accordingly, having prepped the site for the entire first building — in the following picture you can see that the prep work involved a lot of the plumbing and other utilities needed for the apartments themselves (note the field of white pipes sticking up from the ground) — the contractors are focused for now on building the northern building’s central garage:

This is the same technique that was used to construct the six-story apartment building out at Blu Harbor (the large apartment complex at the end of Bair Island Road). Back in late 2016 I took the following picture of that development, showing some of the building’s many apartments starting to be framed up around that project’s giant by-then-completed concrete parking garage:

And here is another shot of that same building, about a year later (and viewed from a different side):

As you can see, the garage is pretty much invisible, buried behind the apartments. One nice aspect of this design — which the development at 557 E. Bayshore will share — is that residents will have the opportunity to park on the same level as their apartment. Doors on each level will lead to hallways that wrap the garage on three sides and from which residents will enter and exit their particular units. Of course, there will also be elevators and stairs, providing access not only to the building’s main lobby but also to the other levels of the garage.

For what it’s worth, it took the contractors on the Blu Harbor roughly a year to construct that massive concrete parking garage. The one at 557 E. Bayshore is one level shorter, and somewhat smaller overall, though, so it shouldn’t take quite that long to get to the point where the apartments are beginning to be framed up.

Progress is usually a positive thing: something getting built, for instance. Progress of another sort is soon to be underway just across Redwood Creek from the 557 E. Bayshore project. There, a fairly good-sized tent encampment has sprung up over the last couple of months:

(Just behind these makeshift homes, on the left, is Highway 101.) As I walked by, I observed that the city has posted 7-day eviction notices on the fence beside each individual structure:

According to these notices, unless each campsite is removed by next Tuesday, October 14, the city will collect everything and store it for 90 days, after which it will be disposed of. During those 90 days the folks living in these tents will be able to contact the city and retrieve their belongings.

Out at what used to be Docktown Marina, the very last of the floating homes seems finally ready for destruction or removal. When last I visited, it was still floating in one of Docktown Marina’s remaining berths. But on this visit, I could see that it had been moved to the marina’s old boat ramp:

I can’t imagine that it’ll be trucked out; more likely it will be hauled up and demolished. In any case, except for a number of concrete and steel posts that stick up from the water, and for random bits of concrete that once formed part of the marina itself, no real sign remains of what once was a thriving community of floating homes.

Back on the west side of the freeway, and down Broadway several blocks below Woodside Road, the steel skeleton of what will become Stanford Health Care’s newest medical building in Redwood City continues to rise, now aided by a pretty hefty mobile crane:

On Bay Road just north of Woodside Road, the third and final apartment building making up the residential portion of the Broadway Plaza project is now getting its exterior finishes:

The other two buildings are looking pretty nearly complete, at least from the outside. The entrance to the childcare center that will be an integral part of the large building that faces onto Broadway is also about to receive its own exterior finishes (this view is from Bay Road; I presume that the childcare center will be accessed from within the center of the property):

No round-up of Redwood City projects would be complete without mention of the ELCO Yards project, and this week’s mention is a big one: the project’s first phase, consisting of the four office buildings, now seems to be complete! Although no tenants have moved in as yet, essentially all of the construction fencing is down, and the streets and sidewalks are wide open. Pretty much all of the construction vehicles have left the area, and everything is clean and bright (well, some of the windows could use a good wiping…). I was down there twice this week, and was able to walk completely around all of the buildings, including the stand-alone restaurant building at Main and Chestnut Streets. So, for example, I was able to sit on some more of those crazy benches that are located along Lathrop Street between two of the offices:

I was also able to peer into the lobby of the childcare center, which you enter from Lathrop Street (just behind that bright yellow-green pedestrian crossing sign in the above image, in fact). I like the artwork on the lobby wall (pardon the reflections; I can only do so much to eliminate those):

I mentioned earlier that essentially all of the construction fences are down; the only exception is a small fence blocking access to what will be a private inner courtyard within the building between Lathrop and Main streets. That fencing is needed only until the fence and gate that will soon restrict access to just those working in the building has been completed:

As for the restaurant building, I didn’t notice any significant changes to it and its adjoining public plaza this week, but I was delighted to note that a brass plaque containing a pretty in-depth history of the original Perry Fuel & Feeds shed that used to stand on that spot has been affixed to the Chestnut Street side of the building:

You should be able to click on the above photo and zoom in to where you can actually read the words, but instead consider going down and seeing it, the building, and in fact this entire new four-block addition to Redwood City, for yourself.

Before the observant among you write in, yes, there is still a section of the ELCO Yards project property surrounded by construction fencing. That is where the project’s second phase — which will consist of two seven-story apartment buildings containing a total of 501 apartments (more than 100 of which will be affordable) — will get underway relatively soon (but not before next year, it appears: the Redwood City Council is tentatively scheduled to discuss some modifications to the conditions of approval for these two buildings in late November). Until then, the two subject parcels, along with a one-block section of Lathrop Street from Beech to Maple streets, will remain surrounded by construction fencing for the time being:

Oh, and because people have asked, I don’t expect the sidewalks alongside these two particular parcels (on El Camino Real and on Main Street) will be constructed until the final development stage of these two apartment buildings, meaning that we’ll have to wait at least two years or so for those (and for the “creek walk” that will run between the creek and the apartment building that will stand at the corner of El Camino Real and Maple Street; I for one am very much looking forward to being able to walk along that).

I ended my walk by strolling up Vera Avenue to Red Morton Park in order to check on the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center, but I haven’t anything of note to report from that portion of my walk — other than to mention that just after I crossed Adams Street, I watched as a convoy of six (!) Waymo vehicles headed north on Adams, crossing Vera behind me. Most were the standard white vehicles, but two of them displayed some interesting artwork:

The robots are coming…