By Meghan Hall
Major Bay Area developer Lane Partners has kicked off its plans to reposition an entire city block in San Mateo, bringing additional office and retail uses to downtown. At the end of May, the developer, along with KSH Architects, submitted preliminary plans for 222 East 4th Ave. Plans entail demolishing an existing Draeger’s grocery store and redeveloping the property into a four-story mixed-use project with retail and grocery uses on the ground floor and retail above.
All together, the redevelopment would involve four parcels, totaling nearly 50,000 square feet, or about 1.123 acres. Project plans show that the new development would include 117,656 square feet of office space, plus 16,636 square feet of retail. The building would come in at 147,645 square feet. A total of 241 parking spaces—located both below and above ground—will be included in the project. Two outdoor terraces on level three totaling 9,400 square feet, one terrace at level four with an area of 750 square feet, and a roof deck with an area of 6,850 square feet are also highlighted.
The design of the building will be modern in nature, with the façade featuring a wood storefront window system with metal canopy and red brick surround. Tall, narrow profile aluminum windows will be included, as will light colored stucco, to provide contrast to the brick.
Timing for the project is unclear, and Lane Partners declined The Registry’s request for comment at this time. According to the City of San Mateo’s website, the project is currently under review by the City, and any meetings that would indicate movement of the project have yet to be determined.
Menlo Park-based Lane Partners has worked to develop more than five million square feet of space throughout Northern California. According to the firm’s website, Lane Partners have seven other projects under development, including Southline, a 26-acre two-million square foot campus in South San Francisco, Eastline, a 1.6 million square foot development in Oakland’s Uptown District, and 520 Almanor, a Class A, 230,000 square foot building in Sunnyvale. The project is expected to be completed at the end of this year and is fully leased to Nokia.
At the end of the second quarter, there was 4.4 million square feet of office and research and development space under construction in San Mateo County, of which 42.8 percent was pre-leased, according to Cushman and Wakefield. San Mateo currently accounts for about 8.1 million square feet of the County’s inventory, and currently has a vacancy rate of 14.6 percent. Class A asking rents are hovering at about $5.72 per square foot. While the CRE industry has slowed, it will most likely be the life sciences industry that will drive the Peninsula office and R&D market in the coming months, with active tenant requirements picking up pace again in 2021.
