REDWOOD CITY — More than a decade in the making, a new senior center and veterans memorial building will finally begin construction at Red Morton Park in July after council members unanimously voted to move the project forward.
The Redwood City Council on Monday The Redwood City Council on Monday awarded a construction contract and approved financing to build the new Veterans Memorial Senior Center, a move that ends 10 years of planning, tense community meetings and numerous delays. It’s another example of the construction boom that has been quickly transforming Redwood City in recent years.
“This project is long overdue,” said councilman Jeff Gee Monday. “Our seniors deserve a reimagined senior center.”
The council initially intended to break ground on the site in 2020, but officials put the project on hold amid an uncertain bond market due to COVID-19.
Now city leaders are ready to begin work on the new 45,000-square-foot, LEED-certified modern building that will house a 299-seat theater, cafe, rooftop track, gym and other amenities as well as the NFL Alumni Association and various conference rooms and exhibition spaces.
It will be the larger sibling of what the city envisions will be an “inter-generational” campus of community spaces that includes the construction of a new Redwood City YMCA next door, divided by a tree-lined pedestrian promenade on what is now Nevada Street.
To make way for the project, five buildings will be demolished in phase 1: the current Veterans Memorial Senior Center, the Gift Shop and administration building, the “Old 49er Building,” the NFL Alumni building and Herkner Pool. Those buildings are at various stages of decay, city staff said, and are running the city’s electric bill up.
In April 2021, the city received five bids for the project, but Thompson Builders Corporation won out with a total bid of $51.1 million. The city intends to increase the contract amount, if necessary, by up to 10%, a total not to exceed $56.2 million. Both are below the initial $60 million price tag city staff expected, and the construction is set to take about two years.
Phase 2 of the project will include the construction of a new 35,000 square-foot YMCA building to replace the existing Sequoia YMCA facility. That development plan includes two pools, one indoor and outdoor, as well as multi-use rooms and a day care facility able to care for about 72 children. It was expected to begin in 2022 and will also take two years.
But though the project is finally moving along, 50-year Redwood City resident Barb Valley was disappointed it has taken this long. When she first retired in 2007, she said there were inklings that the senior center would be remodeled — but she just kept waiting.
“It was three years later that planning commenced, then 8 years after that we did traffic calming workshops and now here we are 11 years total and 14 years since I retired and the end is finally in sight,” Valley said. “Please, I’m begging you, let’s get this show on the road. My peers and I are not getting any younger.”
Harold Drager, who has been on the city’s Seniors Affairs Commission for 11 years, was also happy to see the project moved forward.
“I’m glad the folks who will use the senior center will have an opportunity to have a brand new building,” he said. “Something that will serve not 1950s needs, but the needs of 2021.”
Councilman Gee voted in favor of the project, but wasn’t happy about how long it has taken to build it considering how much construction costs have gone up since the new senior center was first envisioned.
“Fourteen years ago this might’ve cost only $30 million,” he said. “This idea that the longer we wait the more inexpensive it will be? I disagree with that.”
Gee also warned the winning bidder — with whom he has worked with on private business — against taking advantage of the extra 10% overage funds the city set aside in case the project goes over budget.
“Stay close to that low bid and don’t exceed,” he said. “This isn’t money to be gotten by the contractor. Please be noticed that this is not free money and we are all paying for it as residents of the city.”