Last week’s post — The Road to Belmont — covered, naturally, my walk into Belmont and some of the affordable housing projects now underway in that city. That walk reminded me that it’s been some time since I checked in on the two good-sized affordable housing projects in North Fair Oaks, so this week I headed south to do just that. I know that at least some of you are less interested in what is going on outside the city’s borders: for you, the start and end of this post covers some of what I saw in Redwood City as I made my way down towards North Fair Oaks, so don’t skip this one entirely. In any case, Redwood City’s boundaries are rather odd in places, and most people don’t know or care if they are actually in the city or not. Plus, thanks to some oddities with how the United States Postal Service operates, many of the businesses in North Fair Oaks list their addresses as “Redwood City” when in truth they are located in an unincorporated part of the county. So although I spent most of my walk this wee outside the city limits this week, that’s really more of a technicality…

I opted to walk along Middlefield Road from where it originates in Redwood City to where it crosses into Atherton (just past Garfield Charter Elementary School, if you are curious). In Redwood City, Middlefield Road begins (or ends, depending upon which way you are going) at Veterans Boulevard. To get there, I walked down Brewster Avenue, which gave me a chance to check in on the Hampton Inn hotel project underway at the corner of Veterans Boulevard and Brewster Avenue. That is one of the Redwood City projects that is making steady progress: this week I noted insulating panels going up on parts of the building’s exterior that will ultimately be clad with metal siding (the building’s exterior will be a mix of corrugated metal siding, painted stucco, and dark gray brick veneer):

The above is a picture of the building’s backside, viewed from Winslow Street. Here is another angle, this one from Veterans Boulevard, in front of the next-door Salvation Army building:

If you haven’t walked along Middlefield Road in the last year or so, the project to make the street more walkable (and bike-able) was a big success, at least from my viewpoint. From just beyond Main Street down to Woodside Road the sidewalks are very wide and are accompanied by an off-street bike lane (the bike lane is the gray bit; pedestrians should keep to the right, on the white concrete):

These sidewalks, coupled with the attractive light poles and the lack of overhead wires makes the walk far more pleasant than it used to be.

I was disappointed to see that the project to expand Jardin de Niños park has stalled; the work that an artist had been doing to clad the new large gazebo’s skeletal structure seems to have come to a complete halt after the bit at the very top was installed. Not sure what’s behind the delay, but the whole project seems to be waiting for that work to be done, and nothing has happened for months now…

After crossing Woodside Road — something that is far easier than it used to be, thanks to the updated crosswalks and crossing lights — I continued past Costco (which is within the Redwood City limits), and then past the mini-storage and the Fair Oaks Public Library (which are in North Fair Oaks). I then passed the Fair Oaks Community Center (which is back within Redwood City’s limits and is in fact run by Redwood City staff), after which I found myself once again in North Fair Oaks (I told you that the city’s border is weird!) after which I crossed the railroad tracks. There I made a right into the parking lot of The Fair Oaks Health Center, since the first affordable housing development I wanted to check on is located on county land behind the health center.

Middlefield Junction is the large two-building housing development that, on June 3 2024, had a terrible fire while still under construction. The larger of the two buildings burned almost completely to the ground (the first floor was built entirely from concrete and survived, but the five stories atop that, which by then had been fully framed up, were a total loss). Amazingly, the smaller building next door was pretty much unscathed. Since then that smaller building was essentially completed and its 75 for-rent affordable apartments have been leased and are now occupied.

The one remaining portion of this smaller building is the ground-floor childcare center, which is being worked on right now. Here is where the center’s outdoor play area will be located: as you can see, the play area has yet to be started:

Thanks to the fire the second building was delayed, but now appears to be very close to done:

This second building — the one that burned — is the brown one in the center/right of the photo; what you see to the left is the smaller building that is now occupied. When complete the larger building will have some 100 for-rent affordable apartments ranging in sizes from one to three bedrooms. In the above photo, you can see the entrance to the parking garage that has spaces residents of both buildings: that garage has room for 152 vehicles (between the two buildings there is also secure storage for more than 100 bicycles).

Here is another view of the larger building; this is its east side (above shows the building’s north and west sides):

I find these to be very attractive buildings, at least from the outside. Hopefully they are just as nice inside! As they should be: this project was estimated to cost $155 million. In any case, after taking these photos I made my way to the other side of the Caltrain tracks (which took some doing: I had to go all the way to Fifth Avenue) and back up Westmoreland Avenue, which parallels the tracks on their southwest side. From there I was able to look at the building from the rear:

(The building is U-shaped, with the opening towards the tracks; here you can see both arms of the ‘U’.) In addition to the building itself, if you look closely you can see evidence of what has to be  children’s play area (with trees!) that has been constructed atop the building’s ground-level parking garage between the arms of the ‘U’. Here:

That climbing structure, and the trees around it, seem solid indicators that this part of the project is just about done, and indeed I’ve read that the plan is to not only finish the building in 2026, but to lease it and open for occupancy sometime this year.

The other project I visited this week is across Middlefield Road and back towards Redwood City about two blocks. Located along San Mateo Avenue (which parallels Middlefield Road just one block to the northeast), the project site spans the length of the block from Douglas to MacArthur avenues. I last saw the site in October; back then the site had been cleared and flattened, but no construction had yet taken place. Now things are quite different:

Dubbed “Monarch at Redwood,” this will be a six-story building containing 86 affordable apartments: 47 studios, 29 one-bedroom units, and five each with two and three bedrooms atop a somewhat small (24 space) parking garage. This will also be a U-shaped building, with a common (but private to the residents) outdoor area between the arms of the ‘U’ atop the ground floor garage.

As you can see, the building’s ground floor is made of concrete; the five upper floors will be wood-framed. But unlike a typical wood-framed project, where the walls are assembled from individual lengths of wood close to where they will then be tilted up into position, with this project it appears that each apartment’s individual walls are pre-assembled elsewhere (I presume, entirely off-site). In the following photo you can see stacks of these pre-made walls, both on the street (this block of San Mateo Avenue is completely closed to vehicles for the duration of the project, but fortunately for me is still open to pedestrians along the street’s far side) as well as up on the second level, ready to be moved into position and then tilted up:

This method of construction should speed things along quite a bit. Thus, I expect that the next time I pay the site a visit things will look significantly different.

Returning back to Redwood City, I jogged over to Broadway so that I could check on the Broadway Village project. This week work was underway on finishing up the Bay Road entrance to the underground parking garage, something that needs to be completed before people can move in to that project’s affordable apartment building (the one to the left in the following picture):

The building to the right is the third of the project’s three apartment buildings; it was the last to get underway, and will undoubtedly be the last to finish up. Although it does not yet have a name — the affordable building is called The Millton and the large one along Broadway is called The Colton — and although it is not yet even mentioned on the Broadway Village website, it at least seems to have an address now:

(Look straight down from the cherry picker basket; you can just make out the number “707” affixed to the wall above the glass doors.)

The Millton also now has its main entrances, with signs: one on Chestnut Street, and this one on Bay Road:

The Millton is expected to be open for occupancy next month (February). No word yet on when The Colton and the yet-to-be-named apartment building on Bay Road will be available for move-in.

That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll take another look at Broadway Village, and also make my way across the freeway to check on the project underway over there. Have a great weekend!

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I just got word that Hassett Ace Hardware, in Woodside Plaza, is making progress in recovering from the terrible accident that occurred in mid-December, when a car crashed through the store’s front window, doing plenty of damage and sparking a fire. According to a very recent Instagram post, they’re now emptying the store, after which they’ll remove and replace the water-damaged, buckling floor and subfloor. They’re hoping that this will only take a few weeks, so hopefully they’ll be back open soon! I for one can’t wait: they’d become my go-to hardware store, a place that I seemed to go to at least once each weekend.

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On Thursday, January 29, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., the city will be holding a community meeting at the Redwood Shores Library (there will also be a Zoom link) to talk about the Redwood Shores Sea Level Rise Protection Project and to gather community feedback. Redwood Shores residents in particular are encouraged to attend, given that this project is all about protecting the many homes and commercial buildings out in The Shores. Those who will attend in-person are being asked to RSVP — and those who want to attend virtually will also need to RSVP in order to obtain the Zoom link. For either, use the following link to signal your attendance: https://redwoodshoresslr.eventbrite.com/