Construction Tops Off San Francisco

By Alex Girda

The city of San Francisco never was one for ordinary policies. This week, Stanford University agreed to pay $3.7 million to the city of Menlo Park to help the local government deal with the traffic generated by the ongoing massive expansion of its hospital.

The initial offering totaled $3.3 million, of the total of $5.6 million sought by the city council. The deal awaits approval of a memorandum of understanding. Some of the money will be used for traffic improvements, while the rest will be spent at the council’s discretion.

This is not the only offer Stanford has made to local governments, as it is currently in negotiations with the city of Palo Alto, to which it has offered $23 million for housing and infrastructure, while also proposing $12 million to be used in climate change initiatives and traffic impact.

Also making headlines is the recently unveiled redevelopment of the Metreon. The city of San Francisco, along with representatives from Target and real estate owner Westfield Corp., held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the proposed renovation of the 12-year-old building. The project will not only create 600 temporary construction jobs but also 700 new jobs at the end of the renovation,. The $30 million renovation is very critical to the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.

The ground floor has been completely revamped; the space has been opened up and will be divided among restaurants and other retail. Another important change will focus on the fourth floor, where the project has a new public area concept called City View. It is planned for completion this fall.