They come in pairs

In 2017, or thereabouts, two projects got underway along El Camino Real just two blocks apart. The first, at 400 El Camino Real — The Ashton — contains 73 condominiums plus a 5,000-square-foot stand-alone retail building. The second, at 600 El Camino Real, consists of 32 condominiums and a couple of ground-floor retail spaces. Both projects wrapped in 2019.

Shortly after those two projects began welcoming new residents, work got underway on Firehouse Square, at the corner of El Camino Real and O’Neill Avenue. Although Firehouse Square doesn’t technically have a partner, this two-part development serves two distinct segments of the residential market. It consists of a single large multifamily building containing 66 affordable apartments and, along Fifth Avenue, 15 for-sale townhomes at market rates.

As framing was wrapping up for Firehouse Square’s apartment building, work began just across the Caltrain tracks at 1325 Old County Road. Named Artisan Crossing, this four-story, 250-unit apartment building — with 38 affordable units — finished up at the end of 2023. Just four months later, another large apartment project on Old County — The Hayden Belmont — welcomed its own first residents. The Hayden Belmont is located at 815 Old County Road and consists of 177 luxury apartments, 27 of them affordable.

Finally, we have the two fully affordable housing projects currently underway along El Camino Real. The first, dubbed “800-803 Belmont Avenue” for now, is rising on a long-empty lot at the corner of El Camino and Belmont Avenue, plus, on the large parcel behind — and up the hill — from it, where the 19-room Bel Mateo Motel once stood. Currently underway on the combined site is a fully affordable, 125-unit apartment complex. The apartments, which will range in size from one to three bedrooms, will be located in a single eight-story building — although because the building is terraced as it climbs the hill, each terraced level is no more than six stories.

Along with its 125 apartments, the new building will contain a 152-space internal parking garage, a fitness center, a club room, a homework/computer room, a laundry room and a resident services office. It will be surrounded by 6,500 square feet of landscaped outdoor recreation space.

To the south, also along El Camino but closer to Ralston Avenue, the second residential project currently underway — Linc Housing — is also being built on two lots. Here, the lots straddle Hill Street. This project consists of two separate buildings. The first, just south of Hill Street, will consist of a five-story building with 24 affordable apartments plus a manager’s unit, all atop a ground floor that contains the building’s lobby, a community room, two offices and eight “tuck-under” parking spaces. The second building, across Hill Street, will look similar to the first but will contain just 13 affordable apartments. One of those apartments will share the ground floor with the building’s lobby, a community laundry room and four “tuck-under” parking spaces.

As with 800-803 Belmont Ave., the apartments in this second complex will range in size from one to three bedrooms. But unlike that first development — where there are more parking spaces than there are apartments — Linc Housing’s project provides a total of 12 on-site parking spaces, one of which is reserved for the complex’s manager and one of which is a shared EV space. While having only 10 spaces for 24 apartments may seem like a problem, this development is extremely well located for residents who don’t own cars. It sits directly across El Camino from Belmont’s Caltrain station and is only about two blocks from the large Safeway shopping center and, behind that, Belmont’s City Hall and Twin Pines Park. Plus, numerous SamTrans buses regularly travel up and down both El Camino Real and Ralston Avenue.

While I’m sure it’s just an odd coincidence that multifamily housing projects in Belmont seem to come in pairs these days, given the number of new housing units these projects are bringing to one of the smaller — but very desirable as a place to live — cities in San Mateo County, I’m guessing that city leadership has no complaints.

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.