South San Francisco Planning

05/18/23

May 23, 2023

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May 18

The East Side

120 E Grand: ½ million SF of R&D | Approved
R&D Parking Data

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120 East Grand Ave

The East Side | 4.6 Acres | 756 stalls | Approved

On the East Side, there is a private neighborhood of 1-story warehouses being redeveloped. Rather than picking off one building to make a standalone project, Trammell Crow is laying the foundation for future development here with nearly half a million square feet of R&D office and massive street improvements.

The Crow team, represented by Meris Ota, Margo Sulmont, Ryan Payne, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Volcker, described their collaboration with Prologis to get it done.

The two teams designed the streets and neighborhood circulation to account the traffic flows that are anticipated inside of the neighborhood on East Grand. They've worked with the city and the engineering department to address those traffic requests as part of the traffic studies. That includes street widening, additional lanes and a new signal.

Specifically, they are widening Sylvester Road, especially by the East Grand location, to allow for cars and vehicles to move out of that area so that there's not much congestion. They also made adjustments to the drop off area, so it's further down the street and not at the corner. As you travel down the street into the parking garages, side roads let you in and not come out into that major access way. All of this is the result of extensive communication.

Traffic and parking was the key topic at this meeting. The project sits about half a mile from the new Caltrain station and the amount of parking for the project reflects that. 60% lab 40% office results in an expected 1000 employees and the project is parked at 756 stalls.

The commissioners asked a few questions pointed at this aspect of the project.

“About how many employees per day once the building is up and fully occupied, do you anticipate coming in?

“What kind of transit subsidies are you guys planning on offering?

Trammell Crow expects 50% of the employees to come into the office. The development team will also pay a community benefits fee, which is new. It is funding that has to meet certain priorities set out in the general plan and the zoning by the Council.

The project is also eligible for CEQA streamlining and is categorically exempt from CEQA per the requirements of the infill exemption. The project will pay around $30 million in impact fees to the city.

This all-electric, transit-oriented R&D project was approved unanimously. The team confirmed their financing in place for the project with tenants for the project still to be determined.

Commissioner John Baker rang loudly that he’d like to see much less parking for a transit-oriented development so close to the Caltrain station.

“But because this does fit the zoning and it falls under our parking maximums, which I'm beginning to think are too high for something this close to a Caltrain station, all I can really ask you to do is consider reducing that parking.

In an unrelated note, Chair Tzang applauded the entrances being “carved” out of the building.