'Gateway' Building Approved by Council

The plan to transform the corner of Lytton and Alma into an architecturally significant ‘gateway’ downtown moved a step closer to breaking ground tonight.

The ‘Lytton Gateway’ project, a mixed office and retail building at 101 Lytton Avenue, won approval from the Palo Alto City Council, according to The Daily News.

An earlier version of the plan that went before Council in March called for a five story building—the top floor being residential—and a parking garage deemed too small to accommodate the occupants. So Council lopped off the top story and asked for a revised plan.

The applicant, “Lytton Gateway LLC,” returned Monday with a proposal that called for a 52,163 sq. ft. mixed-use four-story building in addition to public benefits worth an estimated $6 million.

Those benefits include contributing $2.1 million to affordable housing elsewhere in the city and $1.5 million worth of in-lieu parking plus money to fund a feasibility study for another downtown parking garage and for parking mitigation.

Another significant change is the dedication of office space to a Palo Alto-based nonprofit organization for a ten-year term. The cost of the 1,640 sq. ft. space would be 25 percent of market rate.

The new plan also boosts the number of on-site parking spaces from 130 to 144, but still doesn’t meet the minimum of 166, so the applicant is offering to pay a fee for the missing 22 spaces—an amount totaling $1.48 million, or $67,100 per space.

The project will create 46,636 sq. ft. of office space and 3,807 of ground-floor retail space and provide the city an estimated $50,000 to $70,000 a year in tax revenues.