Before I get started, I want to put in a plug for a new blog that just might interest some of you and/or people of your acquaintance. It’s called Walking Palo Alto, and you won’t be surprised to learn that it will be written by an acquaintance of mine who loves to walk and write about what he discovers. Although he’ll focus on whatever he finds interesting and thus his blog will undoubtedly differ somewhat from this one, he’s taken a lot of inspiration from my own blog and is excited to discover his new home town (Chris, the blogger, formerly lived in East Palo Alto, where he wrote posts for the East Palo Alto Sun). He’s only written an introductory post so far, but I’ve already signed up: I’m delighted to have a new, independent source of information about Palo Alto. If you, like me, have an interest in Palo Alto, check out Chris’s new blog and then sign up to be notified whenever he posts. And if you have friends who live in or near Palo Alto who might be interested, spread the word.

You just never know what’s going to happen while you are away. Often I take a trip of a week or two and come back to find that little worth writing about has occurred while I was away. But sometimes the opposite happens: I go away for a bit and come back to find more changes than I can write about at one time. Such is the case with last week: my wife and I joined some good friends on an exploration of a couple of National Parks and monuments in southern Utah (primarily, Escalante and Capitol Reef), which we coupled with a visit to my wife’s brother and sister-in-law, who live just north of Salt Lake City. All told we were gone for just about a week, and even before we returned I was learning about goings-on in Redwood City that are well worth me writing about. I can’t cover them all in one post, so I’ll just focus on a couple of the most impactful.

The biggest, perhaps, was the groundbreaking for the two apartment buildings that will join the four office buildings (and one restaurant building) that together comprise ELCO Yards. The ELCO Yards project has had a fascinating history. It was conceived and shepherded through Redwood City’s approval process by Greystar back in the 2018-2020 timeframe. But before any work actually occurred on site, the office portion of the project, at least, was sold to IQHQ, Inc., a commercial developer with offices in Boston and San Diego. Greystar actually ended up developing the project’s stand-alone 38-unit affordable housing building (Miramontes, on El Camino Real at Jackson Avenue), but I believe they did that under contract to IQHQ. IQHQ then employed a contractor to construct the four office buildings (and the one restaurant building) that comprise the commercial portion of ELCO Yards. As for the residential buildings, which were approved along with the rest of ELCO Yards, some time ago that portion of the project was apparently sold to developer Trammell Crow Company, who handed it off to its residential subsidiary, High Street Residential (working in partnership with Barings, an investment management firm). Today, High Street Residential (and Barings, I guess) is the developer, but SBI Builders, a local (San Jose-based) contractor, will actually be doing the work to construct these two new apartment buildings. And last week, while I was gone, they held the official groundbreaking.

I walked by the site this week, and although there is not a lot to see right now, some orange-painted stakes and some areas of disturbed ground, none of which were there last time I went by the sites, indicate to me that something is indeed happening:

I also saw quite a few people on-site, and at least one backhoe, so I expect to see on-site activity ramping up quickly over the next couple of weeks. The one thing I’m really curious about is whether SBI will work on both buildings simultaneously, or start one and then start the other, or even mostly complete one before starting the other. Either way, these two seven-story buildings are soon to rise atop two-level underground parking garages and add 501 for-rent apartments (81 affordable) to Redwood City’s housing stock.

In its press release, High Street Residential provided a nice aerial rendering of what these buildings should look like when completed:

The two large buildings in the foreground are two of ELCO Yards’ office buildings (others are to the right of them). The new apartments can be seen just above those first two offices. The left-hand apartment building fronts onto El Camino (it pretty much consumes the entire block bounded by El Camino, Maple Street, Lathrop Street, and Beech Street) and will have an address of 1555 El Camino Real. In addition to the building’s 252 apartments, it will have 5,277 square feet of retail space along its El Camino frontage.

In the center of the rendering, shown with a greenish tint, the second apartment building will consume most of a block bounded by Lathrop, Elm, Main, and Beech streets (all but a chunk at the corner of Main and Elm streets, which is currently occupied by a single-story commercial building). This new apartment building will contain 249 apartments and will have an official address of 113 Beech Street.

Both buildings will have apartments ranging in size from studios to three-bedroom units, and both will have a small number of townhouse-style units on their ground floors with individual exterior entrances. All apartments should be fairly high-end, with “state-of-the-art smart appliances and top-of-the-line finishes.” And all have access to rooftop decks and lounges, clubrooms, “resort-style pools,” spas, and co-working spaces.

In related news, that press release provides an update on the office portion of the project:

The office and life sciences portion of the project, led by IQHQ, Inc., has been delivered and is already 50% leased. Reported commitments include a 224,000-square-foot lease from The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and a 65,000-square-foot lease by Orrick.

Orrick, in case you are wondering, is Orrick, Herrington & Stucliffe: a “global law firm focused on delivering innovative solutions for four sectors: Technology & Innovation, Energy & Infrastructure, Finance and Life Sciences & HealthTech.” It seems they will be occupying space on the upper floors of the left-most office building in the above rendering (that building’s ground floor contains a childcare center and a large “family friendly” retail space that to my knowledge has not yet been leased). The large office building to its right, which fronts onto Main Street will, I believe, be entirely occupied by The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The other big news, in my book, to surface while I was away concerns Sequoia Station. There, various sources are abuzz with the news that Kura Revolving Sushi Bar will be opening in Redwood City’s Sequoia Station shopping center sometime this spring. Rather than me repeat what others have written, here is an article from the Redwood City Pulse. While I find the news somewhat exciting — Redwood City has other restaurants that serve sushi, but nothing quite like this — what I find most interesting is just where they are going: into the end of the former Old Navy space closest to the corner of El Camino Real and Jefferson. That not only gives them El Camino frontage, it puts their entrance right at the little patio space at that corner of the shopping center.

Thanks to a tip from reader Adrian, I not only learned about this new restaurant, but a lot more about the status of the shopping center as a whole. Leasing of the various spaces in this center is being handled by The Econic Company, which handles leasing for commercial building owners throughout the Bay Area. Econic’s latest brochure for Sequoia Station has a fascinating map that shows the status of the various storefronts in the center. It not only shows Kura Sushi, but also two adjacent spaces that are marked as “LOI Negotiations,” indicating that two potential tenants are working with Econic to develop letters of intent — the step just before negotiating an actual lease. It also confirms Sweetgreen as a tenant in that building; as I’ve previously reported, their space — right next to Habit Burger and Grill — is in the process of being fitted out for them. So assuming that the two “LOI” tenants turn into real occupants of those spaces, that entire building along Jefferson Avenue between El Camino Real and the driveway to the center is soon to be fully occupied.

Moving on to the stand-alone building across the driveway, that last was home to Pier 1 Imports, it is shown on the brochure as having been leased by Davita, a kidney care center/dialysis clinic. That space, too, hasn’t yet been fitted out for Davita, so don’t expect to see it open for a couple of months.

Next, as I’ve also written about before, the brochure confirms that the former Barnes and Noble space is indeed being occupied by a party supply store. But now we know the name of that store: “ROC Party.”

As for the long building that stretches along James Avenue from El Camino Real to the driveway by See’s Candy, it only has one vacancy: the space between Teatime and Jamba Juice. But someone is apparently negotiating with Econic for a lease on that space, so it may not be empty for long.

Finally, the CVS Pharmacy building currently has four empty spaces. However, one is in lease negotiations, and another is in negotiations on a Letter of Intent. So, back in December of 2023, when the center was sold to Hunter Properties, and Hunter stated that they intended to spruce up the center and fill all the empty spaces, they apparently meant it. Good on them.

While I was in Utah, I missed some, but not nearly all, of the work going on along sections of Broadway that, upon my return, I learned firsthand are temporarily fouling up traffic in places. While the paving crews are doing what they can to keep traffic flowing, for some parts of the process they have no choice but to close the street altogether. On my walk this week I watched as the paving machines worked on the section of Broadway between Maple and Chestnut streets:

Just this morning I thought I wasn’t going to be able to park in front of Mademoiselle Colette (on Fridays my wife and I drop by there for coffee and pastries on our way to our Meals on Wheels route); the street had signs indicating that it would be closed. But although the old pavement had been ground down, the process of adding new asphalt is apparently behind schedule and thus we were able to drive through there and even get a parking space. But don’t be surprised if you try to go that way over the next couple of days and find it closed…

Also while I was away, the community was abuzz about the soft opening of Passport Café & Bar, in the “controversial” Chez Nous space in Roosevelt Center (where Upton Street runs into Roosevelt Avenue). Everyone seems to love the food there, so I guess I’ll be checking it out soon. But once again, the Redwood City Pulse comes to the rescue with a good overview of the place.

Halloween is almost upon us, and most of the usual Redwood City activities are taking place. Especially for those of you with kids, spend some time checking out the city’s Halloween Hub to get the details on all of the various family-friendly Halloween activities taking place around the city. And for those of you, like me, who enjoy either decorating their home or simply checking out what others have done, although the city itself won’t be judging decorated homes this year, it is hosting a Haunt Your Home Tour Map in which owners of decorated homes can have their homes added to the map. Then, armed with the map, we members of the public will be able to visit those homes and, through an online poll the city will be conducting, submit our votes for the best-decorated. As of this writing the map already has 30 entries (click the icon to the left of the map’s title in the black title bar to see the list of addresses); I expect a lot more will be added between now and Halloween night. Some homes are already up and ready for visitors, including my perennial favorite, Turnsworth Cemetery, which you’ll find at 224 Iris St.

The circus is coming back! Perennial Redwood City favorite the Zoppé Italian Family Circus is once again about to raise its tents on the downtown library’s parking lot B (the large one between the library building and Jefferson Avenue). The Zoppé family is scheduled to be performing from November 6 – 29, so there will be plenty of opportunities to see their amazing show. Although I presume you’ll be able to buy tickets at the booth as in years past, their website has links to where you can buy them in advance, online.

I’ve been multiple times. Very family friendly, and highly recommended. Oh, and be aware that that library parking lot will be unavailable for pretty much the entire month of November, so plan ahead if you frequent the city’s downtown public library.