SamTrans has identified four properties of interest in the potential acquisition of a new district headquarters building, all located within walking distance of a Caltrain station.
During a meeting Wednesday, Dec. 6, staff presented four properties of interest to the board, including The Gateway at Millbrae — located at the intersection of the Millbrae Caltrain and BART station — Circle Star in San Carlos and two downtown Redwood City properties. All are strategically located near a Caltrain station and range in size from about 71,000 to 180,000 square feet.
The push for modernized SamTrans headquarters, currently located in San Carlos and occupying 140,000 gross square feet, began in 2019, arising out of concerns the 44-year-old building was not only too small for the growing number of employees, but it adhered to outdated 1970s building code and seismic standards.
“It doesn’t at all represent current office environments,” said Brian Fitzpatrick, real estate and property acquisition manager at SamTrans, the county’s transportation district that also oversees its bus service. “And it was never intended to serve hundreds of employees … this building was never set up to house an organization that is as robust as our organization and the sister agencies that we serve.”
The original discussion several years back revolved around updating the building purchased by SamTrans in 1990 by pursuing public-private partnerships that could help it rebuild the headquarters on the same site. But with maintenance costs hovering around $60 million, coupled with a commercial real estate market now seeing sky-high vacancy rates, the circumstances to purchase property near transit are increasingly attractive.
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“The door that opened for us is high interest rates, low office usage post-COVID. We realized there might be distressed properties on the market. We wanted to replicate the past, like we did in 1990, and be opportunistic and look for another opportunity to get a deal for a public agency in this market,” Fitzpatrick said, adding that buying a new property, rather than rebuilding on the existing site, would reduce building risks and lower the strain of establishing a temporary office building.
In a previous August meeting, the board approved staff’s pursuit of acquiring a new property, rather than reconstructing the current, with one of the conditions being the building cost must be limited to $136 million.
“We’ve known historically that buildings that are near transit are very expensive. They’re the prime sites people want to be in. Frankly, the investments that we as transit agencies put into Caltrain have created value in downtown,” Fitzpatrick said. “Five years ago, we’d say that a public agency can’t afford to build one of these high class buildings near transit.”
The Board of Directors continued the discussion of the four properties during a closed session.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Brian Fitzpatrick's name.
There are a lot of questionable remarks made in this article, unfortunately with little pushback.
Here is what's really going on. SamTrans and Caltrain came into money and need to spend it quickly before claiming to have a "fiscal cliff" and raising fees and taxes.
There is absolutely no need for a new SamTrans HQ, they are currently in one of the biggest, most solid building on the peninsula - it's like a bunker. It's certainly not too small for the San Mateo County Transit District as they are renting out space - so if anything it's too big. It also has a huge, huge parking structure behind it. That space could easily be transformed into offices, since SamTrans employees are - of course - all coming by bus, caltrain or bike.
Even if a 44-year old building is really worn down already, the next question that needs to be answered is: "Who gets fired?". If a 44-year old building isn't built to code and without seismic standards and wasn't upgraded over the years, several SamTrans employees need to be fired and long-time board members would have to step down in shame.
Nope, this is the typical grift, where money that should go to Public Transportation ends up in real estate. Why else would you take $136M real estate into secret meetings? If you have nothing to hide do it in the open.
(To understand the danger here, just look at the scandal at the Community College District SMCCD))
All the while SamTrans board members take more money from Public Transportation and spend it on the 101 highway widening and then complain about low ridership on their buses and trains.
SamTrans Board members aren't protecting their agencies from the Fiscal Cliff ... these "Transportation Experts" are driving the buses over the cliff themselves.
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(1) comment
There are a lot of questionable remarks made in this article, unfortunately with little pushback.
Here is what's really going on. SamTrans and Caltrain came into money and need to spend it quickly before claiming to have a "fiscal cliff" and raising fees and taxes.
There is absolutely no need for a new SamTrans HQ, they are currently in one of the biggest, most solid building on the peninsula - it's like a bunker. It's certainly not too small for the San Mateo County Transit District as they are renting out space - so if anything it's too big. It also has a huge, huge parking structure behind it. That space could easily be transformed into offices, since SamTrans employees are - of course - all coming by bus, caltrain or bike.
Even if a 44-year old building is really worn down already, the next question that needs to be answered is: "Who gets fired?". If a 44-year old building isn't built to code and without seismic standards and wasn't upgraded over the years, several SamTrans employees need to be fired and long-time board members would have to step down in shame.
Nope, this is the typical grift, where money that should go to Public Transportation ends up in real estate. Why else would you take $136M real estate into secret meetings? If you have nothing to hide do it in the open.
(To understand the danger here, just look at the scandal at the Community College District SMCCD))
All the while SamTrans board members take more money from Public Transportation and spend it on the 101 highway widening and then complain about low ridership on their buses and trains.
SamTrans Board members aren't protecting their agencies from the Fiscal Cliff ... these "Transportation Experts" are driving the buses over the cliff themselves.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.