Transit Oriented Development and 400 New Homes
“The Best TOD Project in the Country!”
It might be hard to imagine a community needing to be convinced to transform a sprawling parking lot into a state-of-the-art TOD mixed-use destination, but this was the case for the Gateway at Millbrae Station proposal. While the project at a transit hub offered 400 critically needed homes, including 80 for low-income veterans, along with a municipal revenue-producing hotel, retail and Class A office space, there was still well-funded opposition. Hell-bent on keeping new residents of diverse incomes out of their community and pursuing their dream of luxury shopping, opposing interests fought the project at hearings and ran a referendum campaign to challenge the city council’s decision.
To win planning commission and city council approval, GCA Strategies helped the applicant mobilize more than 250 local affordable housing advocates, veterans, businesses and environmentalists. We responded to the referendum effort by organizing in a matter of days an anti-petition drive that successfully prevented the referendum attempt from qualifying for the ballot.
The results: The Millbrae Station project won all required entitlements and broke ground in December 2019. It was covered as “Real Estate Deal of the Year”
GCA projects are successful projects. Check out Gateway at Millbrae Station here and here.