“We are proud to develop a project of this scale that is also addressing the city’s housing shortage. Thanks to the City’s HOME-SF program, we were able to triple the number of new affordable units created in District 11 since 2009,” Presidio Bay Ventures founder and Managing Principal K. Cyrus Sanandaji said in a press release.

Cyrus Sanandaji, managing director of Presidio Bay Ventures, said his group took a serious look at the property, but eventually decided to take a pass. Their plan was to use the state density bonus to push the unit count to 400. While “the math worked” at the price they were willing to pay, the investor they were working with decided to pass “due to San Francisco’s inefficiencies.”

“We are proud to develop a project of this scale that is also addressing the city’s housing shortage,” said Presidio Bay’s K. Cyrus Sanandaji. “We have worked to ensure that Ventana Residences will provide the community with a high-quality, socially activated and family-oriented offering that will inspire residents for generations to come.”

In addition to considerations taken within the property, Presidio Bay has put great care into ensuring that the project supports District 11 and the surrounding communities with useful and desirable benefits. Having preference for applicants who already live in the neighborhood, Ventana’s affordable units are additionally designated for households earning 55 to 110 percent of the area median income. Prospective residents can learn more about how to apply by attending Presidio Bay’s multilingual workshop series which will be held virtually and in-person this fall in partnership with Meda SF, a local non-profit and housing advocacy group.

Its offices have drawn tech, venture capital, finance and law tenants. They include Wells Fargo, which has been ditching offices and trying to sell a building in San Francisco, but leased 40,000 square feet for a new innovation group.

The quick office lease-up is a contrast to the overall trends on the Peninsula, which in the third quarter saw tenants give up 450,000 square feet more space than they leased. Nearly 17% of office space on the Peninsula is either vacant or available as sublease, according to CBRE.

The Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce will host the 45th annual Golden Acorn Award ceremony virtually on Thursday, October 27, at 5:00 pm. The keynote speaker is Cyrus Sanandaji, Founder, CEO and Managing Partner of Presidio Ventures, the organization behind the Springline development.

Sanandaji believes that certain submarkets such as San Carlos and Redwood City in California—two up-and-coming life sciences hubs—will perform exceptionally well given their walkability, amenity-rich surroundings and transit-oriented locations. “Locating projects in these types of submarkets, while emphasizing the human factor in our design, allows our tenants to thrive by maximizing recruitment, retention and productivity,” he said.

K. Cyrus Sanandaji and Kabir Seth founded Presidio Bay as a real estate development firm in 2012, and have also been investing in startups for more than a decade. They were early investors in smart lock and building management company Latch (its stock has cratered more than 90% since its IPO, trading below $1 as of Monday) and failed co-living startup Starcity. They also consider the firm to be a product incubator and consults with startups — one of their former clients was WeLive, Adam Neumann's failed co-living extension of WeWork.

Presidio Bay Ventures founder K. Cyrus Sanandaji said the city’s social contract is broken – and took issue with San Francisco’s inability to rein in crime and homelessness.

Wells Fargo Bank is the newest tenant at Presidio Bay Ventures' Springline mixed-use development in Menlo Park, which has attracted VC, tech and law firm tenants over the past year. The bank, which is headquartered in San Francisco and recently reduced its real estate holdings there, has committed to 40,000 square feet at the 100,000-square-foot North office building at 1300-1302 El Camino Real. It will open there in 2023.

Springline, the 6.4-acre development that intersects Oak Grove Avenue and El Camino in Menlo Park, combines 183 one-to-three bedroom residences with 200,000 square foot of office space and nine restaurants, which will open later this fall.