Glenborough Passes on Pete's Harbor Land

REDWOOD CITY, CA-Glenborough Realty Trust of San Mateo, CA is walking away from a land purchase option here, leaving on the table $3.7 million on option payments and predevelopment costs. The news comes one month after voters overturned the city’s approval of the public company’s plans for a 17-tower condominium, office and retail development that was to span both the 13-acre parcel it had optioned and a nearby 33-acre parcel it already owns in a 50-50 joint venture partnership with the Pauls Corp. of Aurora, CO. The property it won’t be acquiring is known as Pete’s Harbor and the property it apparently won’t be developing as planned is known as Marina Shores Village. The $1-billion endeavor included approximately 1,900 condominiums in a series of mid-rise towers (up to 21 stories), 150,000 sf of office use, 25,000 sf of retail use and a hotel site. In addition, it included an affordable housing component, six acres of public parks and millions in city fees for infrastructure projects. The project, which included an affordable housing component, received unanimous approval from the city council earlier this year, but a local citizens group objected to the height and potential traffic impacts of the project and collected enough signatures to place a referendum on the Nov. 2 ballot. Despite Glenborough spending $800,000 on advertising, the referendum to overturn the council’s approval passed by 2,400 votes, or 54% to 46%. Glenborough’s announcement states that the Marina Shores partnership “continues to pursue final entitlements” on its fee-owned land at Marina Shores, but does not go into detail. Glenborough EVP Steve Saul was not available for comment. Prior to the referendum’s passage, the project was to break ground next year and be built out over a 10- to 20-year period, with the first residents moving in in 2007. Glenborough owns and manages 11 million sf of office space in 63 properties. Its core markets are Washington, DC, Southern California, Boston, Northern New Jersey and Northern California.