Living like a king?

Redwood City’s portion of El Camino Real extends for about 2.4 miles. Until recently, there were only two apartment buildings along that stretch: Franklin Street Apartment Homes, with 225 units, and, directly across the street, the 58-unit Villa Montgomery. Except for a few individual apartments above small retail spaces (it appears there were only a couple), and not counting motels, that was it for residences on El Camino Real itself.

“Transit-oriented development” concentrates on placing residences, businesses and even leisure space within walking distance of public transit, with the aim of reducing the use of private vehicles. Given the number of buses (both public and private) that run up and down El Camino Real, plus the close proximity of Redwood City’s Caltrain station to that street, is it any wonder that developers have been turning their attention to El Camino?

Over the last couple of years, a total of 673 new apartments and condominiums either have been or currently are being built along El Camino in Redwood City. The process began in 2013 near El Camino’s southern end when Summerhill Apartment Communities replaced Mel’s Bowl with a 141-unit apartment complex they dubbed “The Lane on the Boulevard” (it was later sold and rechristened “Oakwood Redwood City”). Then, Greystar Development began construction on “Huxley,” a 137-unit “boutique” apartment building on the former Redwood Trading Post site. Next, Summerhill Homes started in on its 12-unit townhouse development up near the San Carlos border. Just recently, Greystar began its second El Camino project, clearing off a handful of buildings to make way for the eight-story, 350-unit apartment building it will be erecting at 1409 El Camino Real. Finally, having cleared the Honda Redwood City buildings away, KB Homes is starting to build 33 townhouses on the site at the corner of Hopkins Avenue and El Camino Real.

These five new developments, added to the two that were already there, will more than triple the number of housing units on El Camino in Redwood City, bringing the total to 956. And we may not be done yet: three additional developments each with a residential component along El Camino Real are currently hoping for approval: a 12-unit townhouse project on the old Mountain Mike’s site, a mixed-use project with 33 apartments above a commercial space at the corner of Whipple Avenue and El Camino, and the large mixed-use development Greystar has proposed for the Towne Ford and Hopkins Acura sites (among others) that would include 272 apartments at the corner of El Camino Real and Maple Street.

If you live on The King’s Highway, are you living like a king? Given the prices, and the fact that most of these appear to be luxury apartments, you might be thought of as one. Villa Montgomery, at least, accepts Section 8 vouchers and thus caters to those who earn less than a king’s ransom, and 35 of the apartments now under construction are to be affordable at the low-income level (Greystar’s large proposed development would also include 37 affordable apartments at that level). Costs aside, though, I keep coming back to how, until recently, El Camino Real in Redwood City was principally a place to shop, not a place to live.

Only one of the buildings under construction has ground-floor retail (and it, not much), so these buildings represent a real change in how street frontage is being used along El Camino Real. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, given the Bay Area’s desperate need for more housing and given how some retailing is moving from brick-and-mortar stores to online. In truth, this change to El Camino can be viewed as Redwood City keeping up with the times. But for those with fond memories of businesses that formerly operated on El Camino, this change is one that may be difficult to accept.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.