Plans for San Bruno's Tanforan unveiled

Redevelopment plans for Tanforan Shopping Center have been unveiled, with an expansive mixed-use village with 2 million square feet of life science and office space and 1,000 housing units.

The sprawling site proposal calls for 1 million square feet of residential use on the 44-acre site, along with a retail village and life science campus of nine buildings, according to an Oct. 14 preliminary project application from developer Alexandria Real Estate. The preliminary project application proposes dividing the site into a mixed-use area side and a life science campus. Target and the movie theater, Century at Tanforan, will remain on the mixed-use side and serve as the anchors for a central retail village of about 80,000 to 90,000 square feet. The village will be organized around courtyards, plazas and open spaces to create a new neighborhood center.

“This really fits into the larger vision of the future of San Bruno and what it can and will be,” San Bruno Vice Mayor Linda Mason said of the site plans.

Target will be rebuilt at the corner of El Camino Real and Sneath Lane, with dedicated parking under the store. According to the application plan, the developer will upgrade the movie theater with a new entrance, stairs, escalators, elevators and additional retail spaces. Approximately 400,000 square feet of open space is proposed, with central green and village gardens at Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo used as comparisons for future sites. A pedestrian and bicycle access path will run from El Camino Real along the edge of Target through the new retail area to the San Bruno BART station. The new Tanforan Memorial honoring Japanese Americans detained at the former Tanforan race track before being sent to internment camps during World War II will also remain.

Redeveloping the shopping center is one of the city’s most important projects, given its size, addition of residential housing and proximity to public transit. Housing will be a critical component, with the 1,000 housing units organized into three clusters, including an affordable housing community managed by the nonprofit housing group MidPen Housing. The site will also help address state housing mandates the city must meet. The city must create zoning plans for more than 3,600 homes in its next Regional Housing Needs Allocation, required by the state as part of the Bay Area’s housing obligations. The Association of Bay Area Governments, a regional planning agency, sets the RHNA. The city has been interested in redevelopment given the rise of online shopping and the pandemic, with Tanforan stores like Sears closing in 2020.

The proposal calls for increasing car, bike and pedestrian connectivity to establish connections with downtown and nearby public transit sites. Extensions to existing bike infrastructure are planned on Huntington Avenue and Sneath Lane. The northern half of the site with retail and housing will have underground parking, while the life science side will have an eight-story parking garage bordering Interstate 380. There would be more than 1,000 residential parking stalls, 1,850 for retail and 2,863 life science spaces.

The council has emphasized a redevelopment vision that includes office, retail, entertainment and housing units in a manner that supports a diverse mix of uses in its Reimagining Tanforan Fact Sheet from 2021. In February, Alexandria Real Estate completed the purchase of the three separately owned private parcels that make up the shopping center.

“The mixed essence is what we really wanted to see, and we are happy the developer wanted it as well,” Mason said.

The city review process for the application will likely take 18 months to two years, and people can go to tanforanforsanbruno.com for more information or keep up with updates. If approved, the first phase of development would likely include the residential and retail village section, with the life science campus development dependent on tenant demand. Mason hopes the approval process will see additional community benefits, like school and company education partnerships and increased transit development to connect the Bayhill campus, downtown and Tanforan.

The city will present the preliminary application at the Oct. 25 City Council meeting and hold a community meeting in November.

curtis@smdailyjournal.com

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