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For the three decades that Peter Adams has lived in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood, he hasn’t had access to basic amenities such as a full-service grocery store. Now, he will have to wait even longer after Meta halted work on Willow Village, a development that promised to bring stores and a pharmacy.
“Here in Belle Haven, we don’t have a pharmacy, and we do not have a bank. We don’t even have a post office,” Adams said. “We’ve got one gas station and a couple small restaurants and two bodegas. When Willow Road is unusable, we’re trapped.”
Willow Village, the massive mixed-use development that Meta was planning to build in Belle Haven, was supposed to address that. The tech giant’s agreement with the city in 2022 included several large offices, 1,730 residential units and retail space for a grocery store, pharmacy, bank, movie theater and restaurants. The project was set to expand Meta’s office space, provide housing and enhance the historically underserved neighborhood close to Meta’s headquarters.
That vision has been shelved indefinitely. On May 1, a public relations firm representing Meta announced the company was pausing Willow Village, estimated to cost over $3.5 billion to build, due to “shifting real estate market conditions and evolution in space requirements.”
Menlo Park Mayor Betsy Nash called the announcement disappointing. Nash got the news just hours before the May 1 update from Adam Alberti, the spokesperson for the Willow Village development. Alberti and Meta declined to answer questions beyond what was included in the statement. Employees from the project’s developer, Signature Development Group, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“The decision to place Willow Village on hold was difficult,” Alberti said in the statement. “While the plan reflects a genuine vision for community-based development, the current real estate market and a shift in space requirements make advancing a project of this type and scale unworkable at this time. We remain deeply committed to the community and appreciate the trust and partnership throughout this process.”
Some see the outcome as entirely consistent with Meta’s objectives. Meta is locked in a cutthroat competition as Silicon Valley companies push forward on artificial intelligence, said Russell Hancock, president and CEO of regional think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley. (Meta contributes funding to Joint Venture and a senior executive serves as co-chair of its board).
“A company exists to return value to its shareholders. That’s what a company is,” said Hancock. “Anything that a company does in the community is outside of that scope.”
Other community members concede that housing isn’t Meta’s primary role, but say the company has a responsibility to pitch in.
“I think that large companies have an obligation to be part of the solution to the housing shortage,” said Patti Fry, a longtime Menlo Park resident. “It’s their people who need a place to live, so they have to be not only part of the conversation, they need to be part of a solution.”
Development finalized
The 56-acre Willow Village development was approved by the Menlo Park City Council on Dec. 6, 2022, following years of negotiations, and was widely considered to be the largest in Menlo Park’s history.
Plans for the development, located at 1350-1390 Willow Road, 925-1098 Hamilton Ave. and 1005-1275 Hamilton Court, included up to 1.6 million square feet of office space and 1,730 housing units, including 312 below-market-rate units and 119 units of housing for seniors. Public amenities included 200,000 square feet of retail space, several acres of public parks and open space, a dog park and a hotel with up to 193 rooms.
Due to the size of the development, which exceeded Menlo Park’s zoning regulations, Meta was required to provide at least $133 million in community amenities. After extensive negotiations, Meta agreed to a package that the city valued at $188 million. This included the full-service grocery store with rent subsidies, valued at $32.4 million; more public park and open space than required ($22.7 million); a town square ($15.5 million); community entertainment offerings such as a cinema, live music venue or bowling alley ($12.2 million); a range of dining options ($10.3 million); and a pharmacy ($1 million).
Meta also committed to building a $133-million elevated public park. Half of that value went toward the community amenities requirement.
The amenities were meticulously laid out in the development agreement, a 110-page contract between the city of Menlo Park and Peninsula Innovation Partners, a Meta-controlled LLC. Signature Development Group, an Oakland-based real estate company, was the project’s developer.
Most of those amenities were tied to project milestones, but some were required upfront. Meta provided funding and services costing $11.7 million to several nonprofits the city selected to support job training and development. Meta also spent $1.7 million on two years of subsidized rents for public school teachers. According to a city staff report, Meta voluntarily continued the program through June 2025.
In exchange for the amenities, Meta won vested rights to the project for 10 years. But the agreement makes clear Meta is not compelled to execute any part of it.
Now, facing the possibility of the project not being built, Menlo Park will miss out on millions of dollars, including over $40 million in impact fees.
The project also was expected to boost economic activity in Menlo Park. A consultant estimated that the new workers and residents would generate $22.8 million in annual taxable sales, which would increase the city’s sales tax revenue by $217,000. Additionally, the project was estimated to increase assessed property values by $3.4 billion, boosting Menlo Park’s property tax revenue by $2.9 million annually.
After a 2024 voter-approved increase on the city’s taxes on hotels, a proposed hotel in Willow Village was expected to bring in almost $2 million a year to Menlo Park.
Local school districts will also feel the loss. The Sequoia Union High School District negotiated a one-time $15 million contribution, plus $4.3 million in impact fees, contingent on the development coming to fruition. The Ravenswood School District, which serves Belle Haven and East Palo Alto students, was slated to get approximately $3.3 million in impact fees.
Belle Haven’s long wait
In the four years since the development was approved, Belle Haven residents said they waited in vain for news of when construction on Willow Village would start.
Reporters from The Almanac tried for months to get answers from city officials about the project’s status with no success.
Adams, the Belle Haven resident, said he has conflicted feelings about the development’s hiatus. He originally backed Willow Village despite his concerns that it would worsen traffic in Belle Haven. Still, the benefits of going to the movies, interacting with his community and walking to the grocery store or pharmacy outweighed the costs.
While he looked forward to the development’s community benefits, Meta’s suspension decision comes as a bit of relief. Adams, who can see the project site from his apartment, said he won’t have to endure the dust, traffic and noise of a large construction project so close to his home.
“We really hope that whatever happens to the property across the street, it will benefit everybody, and not just Meta,” Adams told The Almanac.
Historically underserved
Adams is far from the only Belle Haven resident who was eager to see new neighborhood amenities.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Belle Haven is a “food desert,” which is an area where low-income people have limited access to healthy foods.
Belle Haven has also struggled with the long-lasting effects of discrimination. In the 1960s, in a practice known as red-lining, African American homeownership was only possible in areas like Belle Haven and East Palo Alto. In other parts of Menlo Park and in Palo Alto, real estate agents would refuse to sell properties to non-white people, a form of institutionalized racism.
Over the decades, Belle Haven’s demographics have shifted. In 1970, 94% of residents identified as Black in the census, compared to a population that identified as 11.7% Black and 56% Hispanic or Latino in the 2020 census. The area is more burdened by pollution than almost 90% of census tracts in California, according to the state.
Status: It’s complicated
For at least a year, Menlo Park city officials have been asking Meta when construction on Willow Village would start. At a May 19, 2025, Planning Commission review required by the development agreement, Eric Morley of Signature, Meta’s developer for the project, said obtaining approvals and permits was taking longer than expected and parried commissioners’ request for a timeline.
“This is a long term, complex process, and so we are continuing to move through (it),” Morley said. “It’s difficult at this time to be able to say specifically when we’re able to start.”
When Chris Turner, senior planner for Menlo Park, was asked this year about rumors that the project may be canceled, he said the city was proceeding as if the Willow Village was moving forward.
“We continue to process their applications as they come in,” Turner said, 12 days before Meta announced it “paused” the development.
Turner also said that he had regularly biweekly meetings with representatives from Meta and Signature. Records obtained by The Almanac show that Turner corresponded regularly with Meta and Signature employees in 2025 and 2026. This included Brian Zubradt, Meta’s director of global real estate and transactions, Morley and Eric Harrison from Signature and Kyle Perata, a senior city planner.
Signature’s representatives and city employees were working to address the San Francisco Public Utility Commission’s comments on the plans as recently as April 1, 2026, records show.
Additionally, records show that city staff spent extensive time on work related to the development. An email from Nov. 7, 2025, shows that the city charged Signature and Meta $89,310 for 458 hours of at least one city staff member’s time related to an application for the encroachment permit for on-site improvements that went through several rounds of review. The city also charged $42,000 for a consultant. The time span those charges refer to is unclear.
Michael Ghielmetti, Signature’s president, Morley and Morrison did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Meta employees Zubradt and Juan Salazar, director of state and local policy who was involved in community outreach, also did not reply to a request for comment.
Long negotiation
The development was a decade in the making. After moving to the city in 2011 from Palo Alto, Meta executives and city leaders discussed a mixed-used development that would combine public and private uses. For years, executives repeatedly affirmed Meta’s commitment to providing a grocery store in Belle Haven.
The project was proposed in 2017 and the details hashed out over five years. In the late stages of negotiations, Menlo Park City Council remained concerned that the project could worsen the housing shortage and sought clarity on the timeline and phasing plan of key construction and key amenities, especially the grocery store.
Ghielmetti, Signature’s president and founder, assured the council that Menlo Park was Meta’s “home base” and that the company’s employees would drive by Willow Village and “take pride in it.” He also gave a projected timeline for construction and amenities. Residential buildings would be finished between 2026 and 2028, and the grocery store was slated to open in 2027.
“We’re putting our money where our mouth is by essentially promising $33 million of subsidy to that grocer,” Ghielmetti said during the Nov. 15 city council meeting. Later in the 7-hour meeting, he added, “I think they’re your No. 1 philanthropist and have been your No. 1 taxpayer.”
On Dec. 6, 2022, Menlo Park’s City Council voted 4-0 to approve the project, with Nash and Cecilia Taylor, Jen Wolosin and Ray Mueller in favor. Councilmember Drew Combs, a Meta employee, recused himself. Taylor did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Wolosin and Mueller declined to comment.
“Mr. Ghielmetti and I did a pinky shake on this, on what it means, and we are ready to move on,” Nash said at the Dec. 6 meeting.
Broken promises
Local and state leaders acknowledged the difficult economic conditions that have made the project less viable, even as they lamented the demise of Willow Village.
“Yes, it was a surprise, but it was obvious that there were challenging economic times,” Nash said. “It’s very disappointing.”
Meta’s need for office space has shifted. The company’s employee headcount skyrocketed from its creation in 2004 to an all-time high of roughly 86,000 employees 2023. Since then, the company has undergone several rounds of layoffs, including a recent announcement that it would cut 10% of its global workforce beginning this May.
Recently, Meta has pivoted sharply to focus on artificial intelligence. Meta estimates it will spend at least $125 billion on capital expenditures this year, with much of that going toward the construction of data centers that power AI.
Nash said Meta informed her and Council member Taylor, who represents Belle Haven on the council, of the decision. City Manager Justin Murphy then informed the rest of the council.
State Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park) said that he wasn’t surprised by Meta’s decision to halt the development.
“Sometimes our processes take a long time, and by that time, people change their minds,” Becker said. “But we’ve also seen tech companies not keep their promises.”
Becker added that it was not the first time Meta and other tech companies had backed out of housing commitments. In 2019, Meta, then called Facebook, committed $1 billion to address the affordable housing crisis. An investigation last year by the San Jose Mercury News found that the initiative had stalled and, by 2025, was largely dormant. The Wall Street Journal estimated that only around $200 million in funding was dispersed as of 2025.
Google also has paused major Bay Area developments. In 2024, Google pulled the plug on a 800,000-square-foot office project in Mountain View’s North Bayshore area after it already broke ground and had to pay over $700,000 after 847 trees were cut down. Google is also exploring the sale of its 40-acre Middlefield Park development, which would have added 1.3 million square feet of office space and 1,900 housing units to Mountain View.
The future of Google’s largest Mountain View development — totaling 7,000 new homes, 3 million new square feet of office space and 26 acres of parks and open space — is uncertain after the company indicated that it does not require as much office space.
“I think we have to hold the companies accountable when they make the pledges and then we also have to move fast when things are on the table,” Becker said.
While Meta appears to have shelved the project, the Planning Commission will conduct its annual review of the company’s compliance with the development agreement. That meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 18.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to say that Councilmember Cecilia Taylor and Mayor Betsy Nash learned of Meta’s decision in a meeting with Meta, not Signature.
