BY ADRIANA HERNANDEZ
Daily Post Staff Writer
Presidio Bay Ventures, the development company that bought the USGS campus in Menlo Park will start hosting meetings to determine what to build on the former federal campus, it announced yesterday (Aug. 11).
The company announced community meetings will occur this month at its Springline development at 1300 El Camino Real yesterday, the same day the federal government announced the sale on the 17-acre property at 345 Middlefield Road has closed.
“Our acquisition of 345 Middlefield reflects a continued commitment to the city and builds on the momentum of transformative projects like Springline,” Presidio Bay founder Cyrus Sanandaji said in a statement to the Post. “We look forward to collaborating with city leaders, stakeholders, and neighbors to develop a thoughtful proposal that aligns with Menlo Park’s priorities.”
The campus at 345 Middlefield was identified as an opportunity site in the city’s Housing Element, the city’s state-mandated housing plan. A Housing Element is a document that describes where the city has zoned for future housing and the number of possible homes that meet criteria set by the state for the new homes.
The property was bought in an auction on April 15 for $137 million by Presidio Bay Ventures, headed by Sanadaji. The company bid as USGS Menlo Park LLC.
The other two bidders were Menlo Park Owner LP, which shares an address with Starwood Property Trust in Greenwich, Conn., which bid $90 million and City Ventures LLC, a real estate developer in the state, bid $120 million.
Leading up to the auction, the property had been off the market since September 2022, when the GSA asked for $120 million and no one placed a bid. For this auction, the agency asked for a minimum bid of $85 million.
The sale is expected to save taxpayers approximately $111 million in maintenance costs for the building, according to GSA Acting Administrator Mike Rigas.
Presidio Bay Ventures has submitted a proposal to Menlo Park to build public housing on the three downtown parking lots among six other developers.
It proposed to build 345 apartments in three to five-story buildings. The proposal includes 580 parking spaces with the possibility of a five-story stand-alone garage built along University Drive at the beginning of construction.
USGS slowly moved off the campus 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.
The sale of the USGS property appeared to be fast-tracked after the Trump administration announced its intention to sell federal buildings, including two in San Francisco — the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building on 7th Street and the 50 United Nations Plaza building.