This story was first printed in Monday morning’s Daily Post. To get all of the local news, including stories that aren’t posted online, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Managing Editor
The U.S. Geological Survey’s 17-acre Menlo Park campus is going back on the market at a $35 million decrease.
The property at 345 Middlefield Road has been off the market since September 2022 after no one placed a bid. The General Services Administration, which controls the property, asked for $120 during the 2022 auction. It is now asking for a minimum bid of $85 million.
The bidding process for the property will begin on April 15, Tax Day.
USGS has been slowly moving for the last few years to Moffett Field in Mountain View because the GSA raised the rent. The GSA is required to charge market-rate rents.
In 2016, USGS paid $8.2 million in rent for the Menlo Park campus. The new rent from the GSA would have increased to $18.1 million a year.
Trump selling properties
The re-listing of the USGS campus comes after President Trump issued an executive order last week that seeks to eliminate certain federal agencies, including the Presidio Trust, which manages the Presidio of San Francisco.
Trump is also looking to sell two buildings in San Francisco — the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on 7th Street and the 50 United Nations Plaza building.
When the property was on the market in 2022, no one bid on it, but representatives of eight prospective bidders inquired with the Menlo Park Planning Department about the city’s zoning for the site, according to records obtained by the Post in a California Public Records Act request.
Offices and housing
David Van Atta, a consultant working on behalf of a development company, wrote to city planners to say that the company he was working for wanted to keep as much office space as possible and have the rest developed into housing.
Another consultant, Katia Kamangar, asked city planners about the council’s previous indication that it would like to have 10 acres reserved for a future school for the Menlo Park City School District.
Candice Gonzalez of Peter Pau’s Sand Hill Property Company also asked about the 10-acre designation, saying it will give her firm pause when it comes to the property.
There are 17 acres at the site, with the city tentatively planning for a school site, five acres of housing and two of office space.