A massive office building at The Village at San Antonio Center is on track to getting built, following a yearslong delay after the developer put the project on hold during the pandemic to reassess its feasibility.
The Mountain View City Council unanimously approved the 7-story commercial development at the corner of San Antonio Road and California Street on Tuesday evening, cementing a long-anticipated plan to build out the western half of the San Antonio Center.
“I think the project has great merit, and I will be supporting it,” said Council member Lucas Ramirez – a sentiment shared by the rest of the council at the May 27 meeting.
But council members also expressed concern that the community might not reap the full benefit of a complex land deal that allows the developer to build at a much greater density than typically allowed for the site in exchange for financing a new school in the area.
About five years ago, the Los Altos School District purchased land at the San Antonio Center to build a future campus. At the time, the district set up a process that would allow it to sell square footage or “transfer development rights” to third parties to use elsewhere, as a way to help defray the construction costs for a “10th school site.”
The biggest taker was Merlone Geier, a real estate company that has spent more than a decade redeveloping the San Antonio Center into a major commercial hub. In 2019, Merlone Geier agreed to purchase 150,000 square feet of development rights from the school district for nearly $20 million in exchange for being allowed to build at a density around five times greater than what would normally be allowed at the site.
To put it in perspective, the nearly 1-acre site used to house the Milk Pail Market and another low-density commercial building.
When the development was initially pitched to the council several years ago, it was met with very little enthusiasm. Council members at the time expressed dismay about the proposed density, height and style of the project, which they said did not fit in with their vision for the area.
Now after some major revisions, the City Council is on board with the development. At more than 180,000 square feet, the project is still massive in scale but not nearly as imposing as before, according to the council report.
“The applicant completely redesigned the project to address council direction for a more distinctive curvilinear design with a high-quality pedestrian environment and gateway presence,” said Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro who introduced the plans at the May 27 meeting.
The 7-story building is mainly for office use at nearly 170,000 square feet. The project also includes ground-floor retail and a three-level underground garage, in addition to a shared parking plan at San Antonio Center.
Council members praised the developer’s responsiveness to concerns about the massing of the building as well as its plans to widen sidewalks and create more public-serving spaces.
But they expressed some skepticism that the community benefit would materialize – not because of any lack of commitment from the developer, but because of complications with the Los Altos School District.
“The community benefit that is most closely associated with this project is the delivery of a neighborhood-serving school in the San Antonio area. And unfortunately, there is, I would say, uncertainty about whether that particular community benefit is likely to be delivered,” Ramirez said.
Council member Alison Hicks expressed similar concerns, noting that the city might need “to make some tweaks to make sure that we do get the community benefit.”
The City Council supported a motion to explore other ways to “effectuate the project without Merlone Geier’s purchase of TDR square footage from LASD, in the event the city and LASD cannot reach agreement on a new funding and joint use agreement.”
For its part, Merlone Geier has asked for an extended development agreement that would lengthen the entitlement period to seven years.
The uncertainty of the office market slowed down the project several years ago, said David Geiser, managing director at Merlone Geier Partners. “One of the reasons we didn’t bring the project forward is knowing that we’d have a limited amount of time to develop,” Geiser said. “We thought it prudent to have additional time,” he added.
The developer has agreed to pay the city an additional $500,000 for this extension, which the City Council approved.
“I’m very happy to see this project move forward with this final parcel of land to really complete the whole system,” said Council member Emily Ann Ramos, expressing support for the project. “I’m excited to roll this forward. Let’s get this done,” she said.
This story originally appeared in the Mountain View Voice. Emily Margaretten joined the Mountain View Voice in 2023 as a reporter covering City Hall.
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