San Mateo County may build for a "source of ongoing revenue"

A few years ago, Councilmember Mary Ann Nihart suggested our city should keep their Beach Boulevard property land, and build to create an ongoing stream-of-income.  Smart thinking which may no longer be affordable to a city in a continuing economic crisis. 

Economic Planning ahead:  Successful City. The other city.

San Mateo Times/Bonnie Eslinger, 3/2/12  "San Mateo County will hire a real estate consultant to assess development opportunities for land it owns in downtown Redwood City, according to Board of Supervisors President Adrienne Tissier. New offices, homes or a mix of commercial and residential units could be built on county-owned land there, Tissier suggested during a State of the County speech Wednesday before the Brisbane Chamber of Commerce. Such developments could bring revenue to the county, she said. "We're hiring a firm to help us in assessing the marketplace," Tissier said. "The county is very asset rich ... I don't want to sell it; I want to lease the land so it will be a source of ongoing revenue."

After the event, Tissier said the county owns several parcels downtown that could be developed, including one at the intersection of Marshall Street and Middlefield where a building now stands, one at County Center and Bradford Street where the traffic court is and one at 710 Hamilton St. where the San Mateo County Law Library operates. "We don't have a specific project yet, but we know we have the assets," she said. The county could enter into a private-public partnership with a developer, she said, and it will work with Redwood City to ensure that whatever is proposed complies with its downtown plan. "We would lease the land to somebody to develop it," Tissier said. "It would have to be in keeping with what we hope to see down there and what the city would hope to see.

Our collective city future?

"That could be an office building, mixed-use, housing. That's why we're getting a marketing person that really knows the marketplace. Because we could say our priorities are, 'let's do three commercial buildings,' and find out that's not what the market's going to bear." Tissier said she hopes the consultant will be hired and start working within a month. County spokesman Marshall Wilson confirmed that the county manager's office hopes to recommend a real estate consultant at the board of supervisors' March 13 meeting. Redwood City Mayor Alicia Aguirre said the county is sensitive to the city's development needs, as evidenced when it dropped plans for a new downtown jail and chose a site on the other side of Highway 101 instead.

With city redevelopment agencies now dismantled and an economy still struggling, Aguirre said it would be "really helpful" if the county can do the kind of development that would help revitalize downtown. According to county documents, more than 60 county-owned parcels throughout the county are being evaluated for their economic development potential, including offices on Tower Road in San Mateo, the site of the women's correctional facility in Redwood City, and land adjacent to the San Carlos Airport. Current assessments of those properties are not provided on a list that was presented at the supervisors' finance and operations committee meeting on Feb. 1. The county paid at least $10 million for those properties."

Posted by Kathy Meeh