Great expectations

Surely, whatever is holding up the expansion of Jardin de Niños park will clear, and that project will complete. Andrew Spinas Park (on Second Avenue) will get a new restroom building in 2026, and the five-unit townhouse project at 239 Vera Ave. will finish up fairly soon. Work on the under-construction apartment building at the old Century Park 12 Theatres site (557 E. Bayshore Road) will undoubtedly continue through the entire year, and I expect to see the VillaSport fitness club begin to rise on that same project site before the end of 2026. Finally, Redwood City residents will of course endure myriad street, curb ramp and underground pipeline projects throughout the year.

Those projects, I think, we can count on. It is highly likely that one or more tenants will move into ELCO Yards' office buildings, and that one or both of that development’s apartment buildings will get underway this year. Broadway Village’s apartments will undoubtedly begin leasing sometime this year, and I count it highly likely that work on the parking garage that will underpin the site’s three future office buildings will commence. It seems highly likely that the 1900 Broadway office/retail project (at the corner of Broadway and Main Street) will break ground in 2026, and I’m pretty confident that both the small office building planned for 2966 Bay Road and the update to Hoover Park will get underway before year’s end.

In the category of projects that I deem likely (but not necessarily highly likely) to occur this year, I count the addition of permanent (but movable or retractable) bollards at either end of the Broadway Pedestrian Mall, the commencement of work on the downtown library park, and the groundbreaking for the affordable housing project slated for 847 Woodside Road.

It's possible that we’ll see some initial work on the Highway 101/Woodside Road interchange, but if so, the project will drag on for years. We may also see groundbreakings at 901 El Camino Real (offices and a teen center), 1201 Main St. (office and residential), 920 Shasta St. (affordable housing), 1304 Middlefield Road (affordable housing), 77 Birch St. (nine townhouses), and 2336 El Camino Real (six townhouses, actually to be located on Linden Street).

For all my efforts to keep my eyes and ears open, your guess is as good as mine as to whether we’ll see any on-site activity at 505 E. Bayshore Road (56 townhouses), 590 Veterans Blvd. (95 for-sale condominiums), 1 Twin Dolphin Drive (offices) or on the large Harbor View office project (where Malibu Golf and Games once operated).

Finally, I count 16 projects that I expect we’ll see no physical activity on during the upcoming year (but probably will at some future date). These include the city’s new YMCA building, the Hotel Sequoia expansion/update, the 131-townhouse project at 1548 Maple St. (we may well see a further extension of Blomquist Street out to the creek, though), the proposed affordable housing building for 1580 Maple St., and the various Caltrain grade separation projects throughout the city. Other projects remain too early in the process for physical activity this year, or are likely dead, even though they remain on the city’s list (the hotel proposed for 1690 Broadway and the “Record Man” project at 1330 El Camino Real).

However accurate my predictions turn out to be, one thing is certain: I’ll have no end of activity to monitor while out walking in 2026.