Three big Menlo Park towers are now eyed at ex-Sunset Magazine campus

Three massive towers could soar skyward above a quiet Menlo Park neighborhood on the former Sunset Magazine site.

MENLO PARK — Three massive towers could soar skyward above a quiet Menlo Park neighborhood on the former Sunset Magazine site, according to a fresh proposal on file with city planners.

A previous proposal filed in the summer in Menlo Park pointed to one tower. A new proposal, filed on Dec. 7, sketches a vision for three highrises and offers a preliminary view of a project that could usher in vast changes for the San Mateo County city.

The project, if approved by Menlo Park officials, would be built at 80 Willow Road next to Middlefield Road in Menlo Park. San Francisquito Creek meanders along one of the project’s boundaries.

The property owners — a group whose principal executives include Vitaly Yusufov, son of a former top Russian government official with close ties to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the New York Times reported in 2019 — are using what’s known as the “builder’s remedy” to gain approval for the project.

The new plans also include a formal letter that offers the basic rationale for a builder’s remedy approach. David Blackwell, a land-use attorney with law firm Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, prepared the letter to the city.

The three-decade-old “builder’s remedy” provision could allow developers to pursue, through a streamlined decision-making process, projects of virtually any size in cities without approved plans to meet state-mandated homebuilding goals. The state government has not yet issued its approval for Menlo Park’s housing element.

The attorney for the development group stated that the project should be considered in a streamlined fashion because 20% of the 800-plus units in the project would be affordable residences.

The latest development plans envision 805 residential units, offices totaling 300,000 square feet, about 15,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and a 162-room hotel. The 805 residential units also include 161 affordable homes, according to the new proposal.

The development would be grouped into three buildings, the plans show.

Building One would consist of offices and retail, Building Two would be residential and Building Three would be residential, the project plans state. A hotel or extended-stay building would be developed next to Building Two.

Elevation plans included in the updated proposal also hint at the number of stories for the three tallest towers in the development.

The Building Two housing tower could be 396 feet high, with an elevation plan showing a 37-story highrise, including a top level for a roof deck.

The Building One tower would consist primarily of offices and be 284 feet high. The plans show this tower as a 20-story building, including a roof deck.

All three of the buildings are expected to include 5,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, potentially a combination of shops and dining areas.

The current property owners, operating as Willow Project LLC, bought the former Sunset Magazine site for $72 million in 2018, according to documents on file with the San Mateo County Recorder’s Office. The purchase was an all-cash transaction, the county files show.

Sunset Magazine left the Menlo Park site several years ago, saying in 2015 that it would relocate to Oakland’s Jack London Square.

A development company operating as N17 proposed the massive new development at the old Sunset offices. Oisin Heneghan, a former executive with real estate titan Trammell Crow, is the principal executive of N17.

“I started a new real estate developer company called N17,” Heneghan states in a post on his LinkedIn page. “We have some exciting announcements coming soon. #buildersremedy.”