The former U.S. Geological Survey campus at 345 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park is in line to be sold for $137,000,006 to Presidio Bay Ventures, the group behind Springline in Menlo Park. The announcement was made by the General Services Administration after the bid opening at 11 a.m., April 15, at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco.
The sale was the result of a sealed bid auction in which interested bidders were required to submit a bid of at least $85 million cash with no contingencies. Any bid that did not meet those requirements and was not submitted by April 11 at 4 p.m. was not considered.
In total, three qualifying bids were submitted. The GSA is required by law to accept the highest bid unless the bidder is prohibited from owning the land or the sale could violate antitrust laws. The second-highest bid was from City Ventures LLC for $120 million.
The sale has now been sent to the Department of Justice for an antitrust review. GSA officials expect the review to be completed later this week. The sale will not be official until the review is completed and Presidio Bay Ventures pays the full amount.
The sale to Presidio Bay Ventures likely comes as a relief to Menlo Park officials, who hope the site can help fulfill the city’s state-mandated housing allocation. Because the property was classified as high-value, the federal government was not required to consider public benefits when selling the campus. Menlo Park’s housing element targeted at least two acres of affordable housing at the 17-acre site, which would total approximately 89 units.
Any additional units on the USGS site could reduce the amount of affordable housing required on Menlo Park’s downtown parking lots. Presidio Bay Ventures previously proposed constructing five-story buildings on those lots, totaling 345 affordable units. The city is still reviewing proposals for the parking lots.
Presidio Bay was not immediately available for comment.
In 2022, GSA put the campus up for auction with the minimum bid set at $120 million, but the bidding closed without a buyer. The campus was put back up for sale on Feb. 28, 2025, as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s effort to “streamline government real estate holdings.”
In November 2022, the city’s housing element stated it had received inquiries from eight private developers about the USGS campus, most of whom expressed interest in partnering with an affordable housing developer. It did not specify whether Presidio Bay was one of those developers.
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and may be updated with more information.