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Redwood City is moving ahead with the 1900 Broadway redevelopment by selling part of Spring Street and a nearby parklet for nearly $11 million, while swapping out an affordable housing project for a larger senior development.
The City Council approved both changes in a 4-1 vote Monday, July 27. Council member Marcella Padilla cast the lone dissenting vote, while Vice Mayor Kaia Eakin and Council member Jeff Gee recused themselves.
The actions amend a Gatekeeper Development Agreement, which is a contract the council adopted in November 2024 that governs the redevelopment of 1900 Broadway in Downtown Redwood City.
The vacant Wells Fargo building at 1900 Broadway is under construction to become a mixed-use complex, featuring a seven-story, 92-foot-tall building with about 250,000 square feet of offices, as well as space for retail shops, a public plaza, a community room, underground parking and bike parking.
Because the city has determined that new development increases demand for housing, the developer behind this commercial project has agreed to donate land to cover the city’s affordable housing obligation for developers.
“I know there was a little bit of heartburn,” Mayor Elmer Martínez Saballos said of the city’s use of land swaps in the past. However, because the new affordable housing project will benefit seniors, Martínez Saballos said he thinks this new site is “incredible.”
Affordable housing site replaced
Initially, the Gatekeeper agreement included the construction of a 71-unit affordable housing complex at 847 Woodside Road to satisfy the 1900 Broadway developers’ affordable housing requirement.
However, Jeff Schwab, the city’s community development director, said that the Woodside Road project was no longer economically feasible.
Schwab pointed to acquisition costs, site clearance expenses and changes in tax credit priority for that location, which made financing affordable housing more difficult.
Because the 1900 Broadway agreement allows for the substitution of the affordable site, provided certain criteria are met, city staff recommended replacing the Woodside Road project with proposed development at 705 Veterans Blvd.
The 705 Veterans property is proposed to be a 76-unit affordable housing project for residents aged 55 and older. It would be developer Eden Housing’s first project in Redwood City. The council also approved this substitution on Monday.
The project would include 75 deed-restricted affordable units which would remain below market rate for 55 years, and one manager’s unit.
According to Redwood City’s 2023 to 2031 Housing Element, the city has seen its senior population increase by 2%, with many senior-headed households having special needs due to relatively low incomes, disabilities or limitations.
The Veterans Boulevard building will be five stories and 68 feet tall, with 12 extremely low-income units, 23 very low-income units and 40 low-income units — offering four more units in the lowest income bracket than the Woodside project would have. It will feature a mix of mostly studios and one-bedroom units, along with 36 parking spots and 6,850 square feet of private, open space, Schwab told the council.
While close to a recreational trail, a medical facility and the Caltrain station, 705 Veterans Blvd. is not in a “high resource area,” which reduces some of its tax credit eligibility, according to Dixie Baus, a senior director at Hayward-based Eden Housing.
The swap complies with the gatekeeper requirements, city staff said, except that it is not a vacant, undeveloped property. The council voted to grant the exception and develop the land anyway.
Spring Street sale
Tenants will have to vacate Spring Street — between Main and Walnut streets — plus a triangular parklet on the northeastern corner of Marshall and Walnut streets — at the request of Lane Partners, the developer behind 1900 Broadway.
The city approved selling the 21,104-square-foot Spring Street strip and parklet to Lane Partners for $10.75 million.
A city may vacate a street when it identifies an area it no longer needs for public use, which allows the area to be absorbed by adjacent development, said Tanisha Werner, the city’s engineering and transportation director.
The closure is consistent with the city’s General Plan and the Downtown Precise Plan, and it would improve vehicular circulation and pedestrian connectivity in the area, Werner said.
Green space concerns
One public commenter flagged the loss of the parklet as a dog park for large dogs, Martínez Saballos and Council members Isabella Chu, Chris Sturken and Padilla echoed interest in creating more dog-accessible green space downtown.
Schwab clarified that the parklet by Spring Street was only ever intended to be a temporary substitute for the Main Street dog park, which was closed temporarily while Elco Yards is under construction.
Derek Wolfgram, the assistant city manager, added that if the Downtown Library’s park plans proceed, they could include a small “dog relief area.”
The Main Street dog park, he said, is close enough to the library that it didn’t seem worth adding another full-size dog park nearby.
Despite her sensitivity to concerns over dog parks, Chu said that “life is about trade-offs,” and that it’s worth it to have more affordable housing in Redwood City.
Padilla pushed back and acknowledged that while the community has many needs, “with housing comes places to recreate, places to exercise, clean air to breathe.”
“As we keep building and building our downtown,” Padilla said, before voting against the staff recommendations, “I don’t want us to rule out the importance of natural green spaces.”
The 1900 Broadway development agreement does require the developer to plant 28 new street trees on the property and 28 new trees off-site.
Baus said at the July 27 meeting that “in a perfect world,” Eden Housing would break ground at 705 Veterans Blvd. in 2028, after commercial tenants’ leases expire in 2027. In the meantime, the developer intends to dedicate the rest of 2026 and all of 2027 to raising funds for the affordable housing project.
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