Stanford buys Redwood City land

The San Jose Mercury reports:

The acquisition comes seven months after Stanford University Medical Center separately bought four newer, neighboring buildings once occupied by Excite@Home, the high speed Internet company. The buildings have been vacant since Excite went out of business in 2001; the hospital plans to convert them to outpatient clinics.

The Redwood City Council on Monday night heard a report about the hospital's clinic proposal amid concerns that it could cost the city more than $200,000 a year in lost property tax revenue. That's because of Stanford's tax-exempt status.

But it also came amid buzz that the other eight buildings could blossom into a new research park.

``In a way it's a move from software to biotech, which seems to be the wave right now,'' Redwood City Councilman Jim Hartnett said.

And while Redwood City might lose property tax revenue on the hospital, officials said the facility would generate tax revenue from sales of prescriptions.

``The Stanford name alone has tremendous prestige,'' Mayor Jeff Ira said. ``It's a great opportunity just to have their name associated with Redwood City.''

The eight-building center would be located at Mid-Point Technology Park, near Highway 101, filling 550,000 square feet of office space on 29 acres.

Off-campus property purchases may seem counter-intuitive because Stanford University has one of the largest land holdings of any campus in the nation. But county policy capping development requires that the university's facilities must be confined to a relatively small region of the core campus. After several years of on-campus expansion, it is beginning to feel major space constraints.

The wacky world of zoning restrictions and tax-emptions.Part of the reason real estate is so expensive in that area.