Preliminary plans have been filed for a 28-story senior living tower at 1800 Broadway in Redwood City, San Mateo County. Initial illustrations show the tower, right across from a Kaiser Permanente medical campus, could reach 310 feet tall, which would make is the second-tallest building in the county. Palo Alto-based R&M Properties is the project developer.
Plans for 1800 Broadway includes two towers protruding from a seven to eight-story podium. The complex will peak around 310 feet tall and yield around 742,500 square feet fot housing, 2,870 square feet for non-residential use, and 75,900 square feet for a 164-car garage.
1800 Broadway site map, illustration by HGA
The units will be split between independent living, assisted living, and memory care. While no affordable housing will be provided, the project does use Senate Bill 330 to increase residential capacity by 63 units and streamline the approval process.
HGA is the project architect. Illustrations show two distinct facade treatments across the complex. The shorter tower will be wrapped with a pixelated barcode pattern, oscillating between stone panels and floor-to-ceiling windows.
If built today, 1800 Broadway would become the second tallest building in San Mateo County. The current tallest building in the county is Genesis North Tower, the 317-foot life sciences tower that looks over Freeway 101 in South San Francisco. Of course, the project is hardly the tallest in the county’s pipeline. On the county’s southern edge at 80 Willow Road in Menlo Park, N17 Development has used the builder’s remedy to propose a 431-foot tall residential tower to be part of a four-structure masterplan.
1800 Broadway exterior view, illustration by HGA
Three single-story medical offices and related surface parking will need to be demolished, and three separate parcels must be merged to create the 2.09-acre project site. Future residents will be near the busy pedestrian mall, a block of Broadway between Jefferson Avenue and the retail-lined Main Street. The city’s Caltrain station is just 10 minutes away on foot for regional transit.
1800 Broadway is close to one of two Redwood City Arches, an iconic landmark with the inscription “Climate Best by Government Test.” While myths abound about the slogan’s origin, the truth is there was no government test. The slogan was submitted during a 1925 contest organized by the Redwood City Chamber of Commerce and the Real Estate Board. The winning phrase came from the Chamber of Commerce President, Wilbur Doxsee.
1800 Broadway, image via Google Satellite, site outlined approximately by YIMBY
The first pre-application for 1800 Broadway was first submitted by R&M Properties in March of this year. The team has 180 days since the initial proposal to file the official application, meaning the formal plans must be filed by this October. The estimated cost and timeline for construction have yet to be shared.
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
Interesting… the tallest building Redwood City is being used to take care of elderly people. It just has an odd ring to it. But I’m glad it’s being considered. Let’s see if this actually breaks ground at this height or the neighbors find a way to shrink this down.
Apartment towers and seniors makes sense to me. A high proportion of non-drivers, and people who don’t want to do yard and house maintenance.
I wonder if they’ve considered closing Spring St, or at least reducing its size. Seems like there are a lot of streets and annoyingly complicated intersections there, and it’s kind of a stub.
Hey, a person after my own heart! I’ve always thought the same thing about that section of Spring Street
This would be great if built but there needs to some affordable housing provided in exchange.
They could also make a donation to an affordable housing fund in exchange for RWC residents.
The government should build affordable housing. That burden shouldn’t be on private developers.
Nice to see a peninsula city step up on the housing front. This project as proposed should clock in well above the 600 unit count. Could RWC become the next Berkeley? This is a good start, next could be upsizing the Sequoia Station project to similar densities.
It’s nice to see this kind of development in more places than just DTSJ (or suburban Santa Clara) in Silicon Valley, this might be the edge of DT RWC, but it is still in the walkable core, and a short walk to the Caltrain station.
I wish to see this kind of development Palo Alto and Mountain View as well
This is a great first step to getting seniors out of their homes (for independent living) to free the homes up for younger families. I wish more of the new downtown housing in RWC or SC or MP would included large-ish condos, without stairs, for seniors who want to downsize from their homes, or not have to care for their homes anymore.
A 28 story residential tower? In Redwood City? That would be incredible
The developer will make a fortune on this. Senior units go for from 6k-15k per month, which is why yu won’t be “moving seniors out of their homes” for this anytime soon. So much for housing to meet the needs of the poor. California needs public housing, and no building that isn’t 100% aligned with Section 8 should receive government funding or credits. Most of what HHA does just supports developers and does little to help poor people find permanent shelter.
I hope they include more parking 164 stalls is not enough for this size of a building. Don’t fall for the slogan there’s mass transit nearby or these people are too old to drive. They will drive and will have guests come visit by car and will need ample parking.
My grandma used to say “When the little old ladies get too old to walk around town, they DRIVE around town”.
Well well we’ve seen community housing senior housing affordable housing go up all over San Mateo county. Let’s be honest when it really gets down to it that’s not what it is. Many many units are priced at market rate and some are slightly reduced but this is because of collusion with city councils and developers and backroom deals trust me I know. Over the past 20 years I have watched so-called affordable housing senior housing and all kinds of projects go up everywhere in San Mateo county as I used to be part of a couple of small town city councils. Through negotiation and many other meanderings with developers The end product does not end up like it is first described/intentioned. This is actually an interesting parcel as I live just up the street. But I’ve been wondering is what are they going to do with the parcel directly across from Redwood City Kaiser where the Kmart used to be and across the street from there is also a shopping mall that seems to be constantly dying those are nice pieces of property but height restrictions on those should be limited. I think this being a fully senior living elderly living building is not the right direction mixed use you would think would be the way to go mix in some affordable housing senior housing and in one building possibly semi or full care elderly housing. Even after all these years it doesn’t seem like that Redwood City city council can figure this out. They get bullied by developers and corporations dreaming of big tax checks. Wake up. Redwood City can’t even handle the small homeless population that it has which by the way, commit most of the non violent crime in Redwood City.
Im interested in knowing about these apartments
Senior housing is among the highest margin (with most predictable cash flow) businesses around. Shame there will be no affordable housing units, despite the negative impact on congestion and traffic.