Presidio Bay Wants Mixed-Use for Menlo Park Site Cut by DOGE

A San Francisco-based developer has completed its acquisition of former government property in Menlo Park.

Presidio Bay closed its $137 million purchase of Rockaway Grove, a 17-acre office campus previously occupied by the U.S. Geological Survey, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The price is over $8 million per acre. The seller was the U.S. General Services Administration, the federal government’s real estate arm.

Presidio Bay’s plans for the site are yet to be determined, beyond it being mixed-use. The firm is working with city officials and will hold community meetings to figure out the best way to redevelop it. The campus could accommodate 600 to 1,000 units of housing and 600,000 to 800,000 square feet of commercial space, the outlet said.

The city of Menlo Park is on the hook to permit nearly 3,000 new units of housing before 2031 as part of its Housing Element.

The sale was part of the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency cuts, as agencies shrunk their headcount and reduced the need for office space across the country. In selling the Rockaway Grove property, the federal government is expected to save taxpayers $107 million in deferred maintenance and about $4 million in annual maintenance costs, the GSA told the outlet.

“This sale demonstrates our commitment to reducing the federal footprint while better serving our customer’s needs,” Mike Rigas, acting administrator for the GSA, said in a statement.

Presidio Bay is the developer behind the Springline mixed-use development in Menlo Park, one of the first major post-pandemic developments in the Bay Area. That property includes 183 apartments, 200,000 square feet of office space and various restaurant tenants.

Presidio Bay will begin hosting monthly community meetings at Springline starting this month as the developer prepares to submit a formal project application to redevelop the Rockaway Grove site.

— Chris Malone Méndez