A Multi-million Dollar Impact

Today, it's a 1950s-style industrial park that generates no net revenue to the City of Menlo Park's General Fund. However, transformed into Menlo Gateway, the same site would generate a total net benefit of $1.6 million each year for Menlo Park. Approximately $1.5 million, or 68 percent, would be generated by hotel tax. An additional $400,000 would come from property taxes, and the remainder from business license and other fees.

But that's not all. The Menlo Gateway project is expected to generate roughly $13.2 million in impact fees. These fees help pay for improvements related to affordable housing, transportation improvements, and parks, to name a few, and they are meant to help mitigate any impacts a project might have on public infrastructure.

Menlo Gateway will deliver a much-needed shot in the arm to Menlo Park's ability to sustain the level of city services, public safety, and infrastructure improvements needed. And the project will have an even greater ripple effect of hundreds of millions of dollars in added jobs, employee and visitor spending, and local economic stimulus.