A small office building in Palo Alto could give way to a multifamily building not far from one of the city’s Caltrain stops.
San Mateo-based nonprofit Minority Television Project proposed the plan to erect a six-story building at 555 College Avenue with 70 apartments and roughly 8,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, Mercury News reported. The nonprofit purchased the property in 2023 for $7.1 million, according to documents filed with the Santa Clara County Recorder’s Office.
The building would consist of five stories of housing above a ground floor that could accommodate retail, dining or other commercial uses. The rooftop would include a garden and several gathering areas.
Minority Television Project filed its proposal using provisions of Senate Bill 79, legislation which went into effect at the start of the month, meant to spur transit-oriented development by allowing taller housing developments within a half-mile of qualifying major transit hubs. In this case, that’s the California Avenue Caltrain station.
It isn’t Minority Television Project’s first stab at multifamily development in Palo Alto. The education-focused nonprofit has also proposed a 24-unit office-to-residential conversion project that would turn an existing office building at 127 Lytton Avenue into housing. That proposal, like the College Avenue plan, is seeking SB 79 approvals to build larger than typically allowed in order to erect the units near the Palo Alto Caltrain Station.
As the artificial intelligence boom brings even more tech workers to Silicon Valley and the Bay Area, developers are working to plug the growing gap. In May, Sand Hill Property affiliate Woodland Park Communities submitted applications for two projects that would deliver nearly 800 residences to east Palo Alto, including several hundred apartment units and 174 for-sale townhomes. And in March, SummerHill Homes bought two properties at 4335 and 4345 West El Camino Real with plans to build a 29-unit townhome community.
The City of Palo Alto has a state-mandated housing target of 6,086 new units by 2031.
— Chris Malone Méndez
Read more
Residential
San Francisco
Sand Hill affiliate plots hundreds of apartments, townhomes in East Palo Alto
Development
San Francisco
SummerHill drops $18M on Palo Alto motel, retail parcels with plans for townhome redevelopment
Residential
Los Angeles
California transit-oriented upzoning approved after LA blowback