WeWork lands in San Mateo

With locations in San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Berkeley, the company’s first cluster of workspaces in San Mateo is part of its Bay Area expansion, which also includes locations recently announced in Mountain View and Mill Valley. By providing office space, conference rooms and common areas to individual professionals and companies with more than 1,000 employees, WeWork has grown to provide workspace to 14,544 members in the Bay Area, according to a company representative and the company website.

Elton Kwok, the company’s general manager for Northern California, expressed the company’s excitement in a prepared statement to be able to meet demand for a location in San Mateo.

“We’re thrilled to finally be able to service the Mid-Peninsula area with our very first San Mateo location, and to meet the demand in this booming community,” he said in the statement.

Construction of the two, four-story buildings finished last year, and more than 600 of Medallia’s 1,300 employees moved into 450 Concar Drive last summer, confirmed Medallia spokeswoman Diana Adair.

The property has been the subject of ongoing litigation brought on by property owners and tenants of a shopping center across the street from the complex and home to a Rite Aid, a Trader Joe’s grocery store and a Ross Dress for Less store, among others. Alleging construction of the two four-story office buildings caused land across the street to sink, a lawsuit filed on behalf of the shopping center owners in February is claiming costs in excess of $5 million for damages their property sustained after nearly 43 million gallons of groundwater was extracted during the construction of the office complex.

Looming over the litigation is a preliminary proposal to demolish the shopping center and create a mixed-use transit-oriented development aiming to create an “alternative urban” community with 935 residences. Dubbed the Passage at San Mateo, the mixed-use transit-oriented development is expected to take advantage of the site’s location near the Hayward Park Caltrain Station by including 35,000 square feet of retail space, a transit hub, art gallery, dining hall and 1-acre park in the plans, according to Brian Myers, a partner with the developer California Coastal Properties.

Currently home to the Peninsula Ballet Theatre, 7-Eleven and TJ Maxx, the 14.5-acre site could still include a Trader Joe’s and 7-Eleven in two new locations on the site as part of the neighborhood — with 35,000 square feet of new retail if the plans go through, according to the developer.

Also adjacent to the San Mateo juncture near the intersection of Highway 101 and State Route 92 is the mixed-use Station Park Green project set to make 599 units available on 12 acres north of the office complex.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106