Meta approved to build 3.7K sf “Zucktown” in Menlo Park

Meta Platforms, parent company of Facebook, has received a green light to build what some call Zucktown, a mixed-use urban village with more than 1,700 homes in Menlo Park.

The Menlo Park City Council has voted unanimously to approve Willow Village, a 59-acre housing, office, hotel and retail development behind Meta’s waterfront headquarters at 1 Hacker Way, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The 3.7-million-square-foot Willow Village will replace the former Menlo Science and Technology Park at 1350-1390 Willow Road, 925-1098 Hamilton Avenue and 1005-1275 Hamilton Court, according to the city.

The project, to be developed by Oakland-based Signature Development Group, aims to turn a sleepy industrial park into a walkable urban town center in an underserved and lower income part of town. Meta, through its Peninsula Innovation Partners subsidiary, leads the development.

In 2017, when the founder of a virtual community that linked billions of people said it planned to build a real community, critics dubbed it Facebookville or, in tribute to company co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, Zucktown.

The new Meta town will include 1,730 homes, including 308 units of affordable housing for low-income residents and 120 units of senior housing, according to SFYimby. The housing alone will take up 1.7 million square feet.

It will also include 1.25 million square feet of offices, 23,000 square feet for dining, 36,000 square feet for a grocery store, 141,000 square feet of shops and restaurants across the project and a 28,200-square-foot restaurant-retail center on Hamilton Avenue.

A 193-room hotel will span another 172,000 square feet. A 113-foot-tall glass Meeting and Collaboration Center, designed by Boston-based Safdie Architects, will span 471,300 square feet.

Willow Village will include a 3.5-acre park, 1.5-acre town square, a dog park, a 2-acre elevated linear park and additional public open space, according to the city.

The overall plan is divided into three districts: a 17.7-acre residential and shopping district, a 4.3-acre town square district and the 32-acre office campus district. The Office of Metropolitan Architecture, based in the Netherlands, drew up the master plan.

Councilwoman Jen Wolosin praised the project for delivering market-rate and affordable and senior housing, saying, “In the long run, this is the right vote for our city.”

But some council members said Willow Village could hamper circulation and traffic, and that getting around the area between Belle Haven and the city of East Palo Alto would be more difficult.

While many cities on the Peninsula build housing on the Caltrain corridor, Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Mountain View officials put new developments in industrial zones away from transit to avoid neighborhood pushback.
Councilwoman Betsy Nash raised concerns about the impact that new office space will have on traffic and rents. Meta has said it expects 20 percent of its employees will live at Willow Village, but Nash doesn’t buy it, calling it an “optimistic view.”
“The 1,730 units is wonderful and must be applauded, but having said that, with all the new office and retail and services that will be involved, we end up with a (housing) deficit,” Nash said, citing a city report that called for 815 more homes than Meta proposed to balance the office-housing project.

— Dana Bartholomew

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