Bay Area Realtor Zach Trailer Eyes Next Development

An aging apartment building in San Mateo could be torn down and replaced with a modern six-story complex that would more than quadruple its housing capacity.

Zach Trailer, a Bay Area realtor known for selling homes in the mid-Peninsula, has filed an application to redevelop a 1-acre site at 22 North San Mateo Drive, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The plans call for demolishing a 39-unit building from 1950 to make way for a 162-unit contemporary replacement.

The new building would feature 87 ground-level parking spaces, 82 of which would be in a mechanical parking system, as well as multi-level open spaces, a gym, co-working space and a clubhouse, according to the city of San Mateo. It would also have 21 units set aside for lower-income households.

Applications for development have spiked following the city’s passage of Measure T in November, a ballot measure that removed height and density restrictions near downtown, transit hotspots and key corridors.

The state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation for San Mateo requires the city to zone for at least 7,015 new homes by 2031. Between 2018 and 2023, before the most recent plan was unveiled, the city approved just over 2,100 units with about one-fourth designated for low- or very low-income residents.

Trailer’s plan differs from most new proposals that seek to convert commercial and office space into housing. Rather than repurpose other buildings, he proposes tearing down an existing apartment complex and replacing it with a property that has four times the density.

The proposal was filed under Senate Bill 330, which allows developers of residential and mixed-use projects to move through the approvals process more quickly.

Prometheus Real Estate Group, for example, took advantage of that legislation to propose a 181-unit complex on a 1.2-acre empty lot nearby. That project, located a mile northwest at 715 North San Mateo Drive, would feature a rooftop deck, sky lounge and fitness center and 18 units set aside as affordable housing.

— Chris Malone Méndez