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A squat stucco building on El Camino Real that until recently housed an auto body shop would make way for a two-story, wood-paneled office building as part of the latest development proposal in Palo Alto’s quickly changing Ventura neighborhood.
Pitched by Acclaim Companies, the project targets a site at 2905 El Camino Real, on the corner of Pepper Avenue. The vacant building most recently served as a supporting location for Akins Body Shop, which has a primary location at 3290 Park Boulevard. The auto shop’s lease of the property concluded earlier this year, according to the application.
If approved, the new development would feature an outdoor patio and a roof terrace. It would include 8,571 square feet of office space, which would be occupied by a single tenant, according to project plans.
The new proposal is the latest in a slate of projects targeting Ventura, a centrally located but historically underserved neighborhood that is located southeast of the intersection of El Camino Real and Oregon Expressway. The site is located in the North Ventura Coordinated Plan Area, a portion of the neighborhood that the City Council had identified as suitable for redevelopment and that includes the sprawling campus that until recently was occupied by Fry’s Electronics.
The most significant development in the project area is The Sobrato Organization’s recently approved plan to partially demolish and renovate the historic cannery that housed Fry’s. Sobrato plans to demolish about 40% of the building at 340 Portage Ave. and construct 74 townhouses. The remainder of the cannery would be renovated and retained for research and development use.
As part of the development agreement, Sobrato provided the city with land for a future park and an affordable housing complex.
Other projects within or near the North Ventura Area Plan district include a proposal by Charity Housing for 3000 El Camino Real, which would feature 129 apartments for low-income residents; a 16-condominium complex that Dividend Homes wants to build at 420 Acacia Ave.; and a 45-condominium project that developer Roger Fields is planning to construct at 300 Lambert Ave.
The city is also reviewing a proposal for a 44-apartment complex that Half Dome Capital wants to construct for local educators. And just south of this area, developers are advancing with even grander plans. Acclaim is looking to develop a 380-apartment building at 3150 El Camino Real, former site of The Fish Market restaurant, while Oxford Capital Group is pitching a 185-dwelling development at the site of Creekside Inn as part of a project that would also feature a new hotel building.
Both Acclaim and Oxford have indicated that they are willing to rely on “builder’s remedy” – a contentious law that allows residential developers to override local zoning rules and objections – to get approval for their respective residential projects.
The plan by Acclaim for the El Camino site is unlike all the others because it consists entirely of office space, a land use that has fallen largely out of fashion in Palo Alto over the past decade. In 2015, the City Council established a cap of 50,000 square feet on new office development in downtown, along El Camino, and around California Avenue (it then made the cap permanent in 2018).
While the city’s development pipeline includes a handful of commercial projects – most notably, a three-story office building that Smith Development has planned for 123 Sherman Ave. – most recent proposals have included a housing component.
The new building at 2905 El Camino Real would be clad in wood siding and feature metal panels, large windows and “light shelf canopies overlooking El Camino Real and Pepper Avenue.” The second floor would be set back from the perimeter, and the building’s roof terrace would open toward El Camino Real and allow for views to the distant hills, according to the project description submitted by architect Heather Young, principal at Heather Young Architects.
Young called the proposal a “dramatic improvement to the current conditions and a positive asset to the neighborhood.”
“The proposed improvements will revitalize the aging building and site with a new, highly curated design with refined proportions and the use of more sophisticated materials creating a stronger presence on El Camino Real and an improved pedestrian and visual experience for the community and building occupants,” Young wrote.
