This Fall, Stanford University will break ground on a $568 million expansion project on the 35-acre site of the former Midpoint Technology Park, on the outskirts of Redwood City.  The property will be redeveloped with a 1.5 million square foot campus that will provide office space for over 2,400 university employees, as well as 150,000 square feet of R&D space and 225,000 square feet of medical clinics.  Additional amenities will include a fitness center, pool, child-care center, cafe, town center quad, and park. 

 KMA was retained by the City of Redwood City to evaluate the impacts of the proposed Stanford Campus as well as the impacts of the Midpoint Technology Park under a hypothetical expansion and modernization scenario. If expanded, the Midpoint Technology Park would have accommodated over 1 million square feet of gross building area. KMA’s analysis entailed examining the employment, tax revenue, and city service costs associated with the existing tenants of the Midpoint Technology Park as well as the impacts of other technology tenants throughout the City of Redwood City. The purpose of KMA’s analyses was to provide an understanding of the Project’s impacts and the revenues that the City was potentially foregoing by replacing the business park with tax-exempt university improvements. 

The findings of KMA’s analyses were used to negotiate the terms of a mutually beneficial Development Agreement. Stanford proposed contributing nearly $15.1 million worth of community benefits in exchange for the right to develop the campus. Public contributions included $1.5m for neighborhood street upgrades; $1m for flood reduction measures, $5m for a business training programs available to residents, $1m for a recreation and wellness center, and $4 million for a community sustainability fund. 

The Stanford proposal was approved by the Redwood City Council on September 9, 2013.  The office park is expected to open in 2019.