Construction is nearly topped out for Alexan Icon, two seven-story apartment buildings at 100 Produce Avenue and 124 Airport Boulevard in South San Francisco, San Mateo County. The project will add 480 apartments to the creekside properties near the South City Caltrain station and historic downtown. Trammell Crow Residential is the project developer.
Once built, the two 85-foot-tall structures will total 743,700 square feet: 406,890 square feet across 480 apartments, 16,670 square feet for shared amenities, roughly 227,000 square feet for the 560-car garage across the two-story podium garages, and parking for 480 bicycles. Building One will yield 455,860 square feet with 294 homes at 124 Airport Boulevard, and Building Two will yield 287,230 square feet with 186 homes at 100 Produce Avenue.
100 Produce Avenue and 124 Airport Boulevard construction progress, image by author
100 Produce Avenue and 124 Airport Boulevard view at Airport and San Mateo, rendering by TCA Architects
100 Produce Avenue and 124 Airport Boulevard aerial view looking east, rendering by TCA Architects
Unit sizes will vary with 98 studios, 228 one-bedrooms, 140 two-bedrooms, and 14 three-bedrooms. Of the 480 units, 60 will be deed-restricted as affordable housing. The project team describes the proposed amenities as including a ‘resort-style pool and spa,’ club lounges, co-working space, bars, and top-floor lounges.
TCA Architects is responsible for the design. Facade materials will include plaster, metal panels, cementitious lap siding, and either stone veneer or porcelain tiles. Perforated metal screens will provide a more decorative cover for the project’s garage, with a mix of metal or glass railing protecting residential balconies.
Previous proposal for 40 Airport Boulevard aerial view with 100 Produce and 124 Airport projects illustrated, image courtesy Bella Vista Development
100 Produce Avenue, image by author
100 Produce Avenue and 124 Airport Boulevard condition prior to construction, image via Google Street View
The roughly four-acre property sits along Colma Creek and Highway 101, just a few blocks from South City’s historic downtown center and the Caltrain Station. The site is also a short bike ride or drive away from the Life Sciences commercial hub in the East Side neighborhood.
In August 2025, Kennedy Wilson provided a $183 million construction loan for the Alexan Icon project, kickstarting construction for the podium apartment complex. Construction is estimated to last around 32 months from groundbreaking to completion, with move-ins likely before the end of 2027.
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This is a laughably car-centric location. It’s on the wrong side of the railroad tracks with no way that I can tell to walk over to the South SF downtown area. Also, access roads, creeks, highways and light industrial businesses in all directions. Yikes. The housing is great, I support this project, but that is not a desirable area at all.
Just exiting the Cal Train station is hell… Living off a highway ramp? Oof
I can’t tell. Is that a creepy pedestrian tunnel (cave) next to the big road?
Yes, that is a very creepy pedestrian tunnel. This area was designed for forklifts and flatbeds not bespoke pedestrians.
Wasn’t it entirely redesigned a few years back with landscaping, lighting, art, pedestrian improvements?
Maybe so. That would be great if it was. I have to admit that it’s been a couple years since was in that neighborhood.
My experience with South City is that they are generally on it.
Everything about you makes it seem like you smell like canned cheese.
No, I would say more like pickles, smoked fish, and sometimes whiskey. I bet you smell like butt and Axe. Amirite?
This dude smells like a wife-beater. Checks out.
Whatever you say, drear.
You two and your little exchanges never fail to put a smile on my face.
Less importantly, the project seems nice. I’d been passing it on the train and wondering about it for months.
There is a walkway from the side walk to go downtown on the same street. It goes under the train track on Airport blvd. If you drive on Airport blvd, you’ll be able to see it.
Parking nightmare 🙂
Not very walkable environment either..
South San Francisco: The Five-Over-One City.
Build it, I guess. But I have a serious question here….what happens to all of the industrial/service businesses that used to call this area home? It seems like it makes sense to have your produce warehouses, bus storage, contractor yards, transmission shops somewhere near the central city, no? I am aware that this is very valuable real estate given its proximity to Caltrain, SFO, freeways, etc., but industrial land needs to be somewhere within reasonable distance from the city.
I believe the official consensus is that there is plenty of space (vacant land, empty warehouses, etc) along the peninsula. Some projects like the one mentioned in my comment below (Lindenville Redevelopment) are planning to thoughtfully integrate space for PDR, light industrial, logistics, etc.
This was an office before… it wasn’t industrial.
Right. I know that this site was office, but it was kind of an outlier on the west side of 101, and the businesses that were there were sort of industrial-adjacent, no? Anyway, the point is that the Lindenville district of South City has been industrial since at least the 1930s, since they filled in the marshlands adjoining Colma Creek
@ panhandle pro
Agree it’s not a pleasant walk but use Google Maps and you will see it can be walked in 15 minutes two ways and you can now approach Caltrain from either side with the new pedestrian tunnel
That said I assume this will be close to 100% drivers but most people drive so I guess we need all housing
I’m not so sure. A 15 minute walk to the station has you at 4th and king in half an hour and Palo Alto in 40 minutes. Most will drive for sure, but the presence of the station nearby is a going to be a major draw. Not the mention all the jobs right next door which are biking or shuttle distance away.
Also be careful not to come off as elitist aholes
Yes I’m sure many of the people who will live here would prefer Pacific Heights but modern apartments in less than desirable locations better than nothing.
The issue is where affordable housing is forced to exist BECAUSE it’s the most undesirable land left that’s yet to be developed. The South SF BART station should be surrounded by this level of density; instead, two-story townhouses occupy the vicinity. The inability to walk from Costco to the Trader Joe’s parking lot is pathetic.
These two buildings are impactful, and the housing is sorely needed, but it’s a shame what we are subjected to because of carcentricity.
Oh dear, Drewl.
I think you might find, if you look carefully, that there is not exactly a lot of large, level sites left anywhere in the inner Bay Area. And those that do exist tend to be either industrial properties, office parks, or shopping centers/larger strip commercial developments. That land where they’re building these five-over-ones is not cheap given its location. Okay, now that you know that now.
Regarding South City BART…it is unfortunately located; I’ll give you that. But you’ve got a high school and a cemetery on one side of the tracks, which are probably not going to go anywhere. On the other side you have the Costco/Trader Joe’s developments and plywood and dryvit apartments/townhouses that you criticized. But to be fair, they are not two stories….they’re between three and four stories if you look carefully. Also, that’s what they were building back in the early 2000s when you were probably in Pampers. What are you gonna do? Those sites were basically nothing before they were built; it’s reasonable density for this neck of the woods.
I completely agree that it is absurd that you can’t walk from Trader Joe’s to Costco without vaulting a fence. I actually have to give you a virtual fist bump for that comment.
It might may be a couple of years out, but Colma Creek and surrounding area will be getting a nice-up via the Lindenville Redevelopment. Leaving it as a dirty little stretch of graffiti-covered dump zone is shortsighted IMPO. Drives me mad to see the creeks and waterways get totally ignored in these projects.
Exactly. Colma Creek needs to be cleaned up and restored to the extent possible, not only because it’s the right thing to do, but it will enhance this part of South City/San Bruno as it transitions from industrial to residential.
Recently finished up a new lifting gym off the creek. Should start construction soon. Conversion of an old industrial building.