It’s a small step, but an important one: Cooley LLP, a mega law firm with offices in the US, Asia, and Europe, apparently intends to move its Palo Alto offices to Redwood City. And not just anywhere in Redwood City, but into the approved-but-not-yet-started 1900 Broadway project: the seven-story mixed use (office with some retail) building that was approved by the city last October to replace the stand-alone Wells Fargo Bank building at the corner of Main Street and Broadway. A representative from Lane Partners, the project’s developer, told me at one point that after gaining approval, they likely wouldn’t construct the building until a significant portion of it was pre-leased. And now, with this major lease in hand, they presumably have just what they need to get underway.

Don’t expect any on-site activity anytime soon, however. Assuming that this deal is indeed what Lane Partners needed to green-light construction, there is already talk about altering the building’s design to better suit the needs of this new tenant, alterations which likely would require the project to be re-approved. And that would take months, if not a year or two, depending upon the degree of changes involved.

Today, Cooley LLP is leasing around 150,000 square feet of office space on Hanover Street in Stanford Research Park. As approved, the 1900 Broadway project contains about 238,000 square feet of office space. However, expectations are that the company would shrink its Silicon Valley presence, presumably meaning that it would occupy less than today’s 150,000 square feet when it finally moves into 1900 Broadway. Whether that means that Lane Partners is intending to shrink its building, or is simply making less drastic alterations (perhaps creating multiple main entrances so that Cooley LLP has its own, distinct from any other tenants?), we’ll have to wait and see.

The professed reason for the move is to locate Cooley LLP’s offices somewhere that is more accessible (i.e., transit friendly) and closer to “urban amenities” (restaurants and such), with downtown Redwood City being ideal for both. It probably also helps that downtown Redwood City has seemingly become a magnet for large law firms serving the tech and biotech industries (downtown currently has offices for a half-dozen or so).

I’ll leave this item with a rendering of the as-proposed building. If Lane Partners does indeed submit a new design for approval, I’ll discuss that design and identify the significant changes in a future post. And if you are looking for more information about the building itself, see my post For Their Consideration. Finally, I should note that the affordable housing project that was approved for 847 Woodside Road (also detailed in that same linked-to post) is tied to this project, and thus will also take a step forward once this project gets underway.

Another project taking a small step forward recently is Redwood Square, the six-unit townhouse project planned for the corner of Linden Street and Hemlock Avenue. The Redwood Square project currently has an El Camino Real address, but that is because the parcel it was approved for, at the time of approval, fronted onto El Camino and stretched along Hemlock Avenue all the way to Linden Street. However, one of the items on this week’s City Council meeting agenda was a notice to the Council of the City Engineer’s pending decision to split the parcel in two, in service of the Redwood Square project. With the split, the northeast lot — which fronts onto El Camino Real — will continue to be home to the daycare center that is there today, while the other, fronting onto Linden Street and currently serving as a surface parking lot, will then be available for development of the Redwood Square project.

Redwood Square was approved by the Redwood City Planning Commission back in April of 2023, and I’ve been watching the site ever since, looking for any signs that the project is actually going to get built. There has been nothing that I’ve seen, but although this lot split is no guarantee that the project will go forward, I can’t imagine why else you’d split the lot as specified by the plans for the Redwood Square project if it isn’t going forward. I’ll continue to keep an eye on the corner of Linden and Hemlock, and won’t be surprised if I at long last see some actual signs of construction.

I’ll end this topic, too, with a rendering of the townhouse project. If you want more information about the project itself, I included a somewhat in-depth writeup about it in my April 2023 post They Just Keep Coming.

If you, like me, are wondering what is going on with the El Camino Real property just below Woodside Road that houses a Chevron gasoline station (and carwash), wonder no more. For years various small businesses-on-wheels have operated from the mostly empty corner of the parcel at El Camino Real and Willow Street. A variety of food trucks, and, for a long time, a silver Airstream housing an eyebrow threading business, operated from there. But some months ago that corner of the parcel was cleared, and construction began. On my most recent visit, the project looked like this:

According to a sign posted on the construction fencing, this new 2,600-square-foot structure is apparently being built on spec as a restaurant space (although the permit simply notes it as a “retail building”).

Finally, I haven’t shared anything from the Veterans Memorial Building/Senior Center (VMSC) for a while, and although from the outside the building looks close to complete and thus there is little new of interest to see, the pergola/shade structure that will stand between this building and the future next-door YMCA (that will replace the existing single-story VMSC) was looking great when I was there two weeks ago:

As well, the parking lot that currently stands behind the existing VMSC was being extended slightly, up to the promenade:

I’ll note that this extension, and indeed the entire parking lot behind the existing VMSC building, will only last until the YMCA gets underway; that building will be much larger than the existing VMSC and will extend almost as far back as the new VMSC building you can see in the above picture. As for parking, there is already a new parking lot on the back side of the new VMSC building (where the pool and the 49’er building used to be), and the YMCA building will have two parking lots, one in front of the new building, and a much larger one beside it. So in the end there will be more parking in this part of Red Morton Park than there is today.

I continue to hope that the VMSC project wraps up soon. It could theoretically be open to the public as early as next month, but as regular readers know, it is proceeding slowly — taking small steps. More likely, it’ll be sometime this fall. Personally, I can’t wait to attend the grand opening, and see the building’s interior in its final form.