On April 19th of 2016, the Redwood City Planning Commission approved a proposal to demolish an existing building at 2075 Broadway (Powerhouse Gym), and redevelop it into a 93,515 S/F mixed use building, with roughly 65,000 S/F designated for office space, and the rest for ground floor retail. The developer, Lane Partners, had been trying to get the project pushed through for quite some time, having their initial proposal of 1750,000 S/F of office space rejected back in April 2015 due to a lack of parking. Now, with a downsized project and planning commission approval, Lane Partners plans to break ground on the project this June, with an estimated construction duration of 20 months.
With project completion still over two years out, Lane Partners have reportedly already secured a major tenant for the development. According to Redwood City mayor, John Seybert, the development will be an expansion site for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a company formed by Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife Priscilla Chan. Per the company website, their objective is to "advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research and energy". The couple introduced the company in December of 2015 with a pledge to contribute 99% of their shared stock in Facebook (over the course of their lifetimes), which at the time totaled roughly $45 billion. The Initiative just recently announced the hiring of David Plouffe, campaign manager for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential bid, and current VP of Policy & Strategy at Uber. Plouffe will be leading the company's policy and advocacy efforts.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will be another major name added to downtown Redwood City's employer roster, which is currently headlined by Box Inc, who moved their headquarters to the new Crossing/900 development in Nov '15. While the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative may not be huge in terms of number of people they employ, it is huge in terms of the weight carried by its name. Having the Chan & Zuckerberg names on a brand new building just one block from the Courthouse Square is bound to have some influence on how Redwood City is perceived by businesses considering relocation in the future.
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