BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
A developer has applied to build a hotel, apartment and office tower, larger than the Hoover Tower, at one of the former Sunset Magazine buildings in Menlo Park, near its border with Palo Alto.
The proposed project will contain 800-1,150 apartments, 150 hotel rooms, between 50,000 and 280,000 square feet of office space, and 840,000 square feet of retail space, based on documents sent to the city by developer Oisin Heneghan of N17 Development.
The development will be spread across four buildings where the lifestyle magazine once had its headquarters, one tower could be over 300 feet tall, according to planning documents.
Another could be about 270 feet tall. The current ranch-style building at the corner of Middlefield and Willow roads is about 18 feet high.
Heneghan is invoking the “builder’s remedy,” a provision in state law that allows housing projects to ignore local zoning rules in cities with an out-of-date housing plan, as long as 20% of the units in the project are subsidized.
Menlo Park sent its most recent iteration of its Housing Element to the state on June 30, past the deadline for submitting such plans. The state will let the city know if its plans to rezone parts of town for 2,946 new homes is accepted by Aug. 29, according to a state online database.
Because the city missed the deadline, it opened the door for “builder’s remedy” projects that wouldn’t ordinarily be allowed by law.
Heneghan has indicated a further a historical evaluation of the property is needed. The building was built in 1951 by architect Cliff May and landscape designs by Thomas Church, according to a preliminary review of the property by Alexandra Kirby, an architectural historian.
Sunset left its Menlo Park campus, which also encompassed the now Robinhood headquarters across the street at 85 Willow Road, in 2015 for a new HQ at Jack London Square in Oakland.
It is possible the building may be eligible for some historic preservation because Sunset Magazine made “significant contributions” to state and regional history and as a “unique” example of commercial use of ranch-style architecture, according to Kirby’s analysis.
Additionally, the site may be “potentially sensitive” due to Native American artifacts being found near the property along the San Francisquito Creek, according to a letter from Daniel Shoup of Archaeological/Historical Consultants.
Other project Builder’s remedy plans have been submitted for a second property at 1305 Hoover Street, according to Menlo Park Assistant City Manager, Stephen Stolte.The 1305 Hoover project proposes to tear down the current single-family home and garage and build a five-story, 19-unit apartment building in its place.
That project is less than a quarter of a mile from Trader Joe’s in downtown Menlo Park.