Federal property on auction block in San Mateo County

California Construction News staff writer

The U.S. General Services Administration will start a public sale of Rockaway Grove on June 21, a 17.36 acres property in Menlo Park.

Rockaway Grove is located at 345 Middlefield Rd. and includes 17 individual buildings, each ranging from 470 to 159,555 gross square feet. The buildings include office and laboratory space, storage, maintenance, a childcare center, cafe and credit union.

Currently, the property’s principal tenant is the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The USGS is in the process of moving to the NASA Ames Research Center located at Moffett Field, Mountain View, Calif. The SRI International headquarters campus facility is to the west and south of the property. Across Middlefield Road from the property is the St. Patrick’s Seminary. Further west of the property are large single-family residences, followed by the Menlo-Atherton High School.

This property was identified as one of the properties for the high-value round under the Federal Asset Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA). Under the FASTA legislation, proceeds from property sales in the high-value round will be used to fund further potential sales of unneeded federal property and consolidation actions to save taxpayer funds.

The auction is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. at RealEstateSales.gov. Each bidder is required to submit a bid registration of $750,000 and the minimum opening bid is $120 million.

Tours are available by appointment only for registered bidders who have paid the registration deposit on the following days:

• June 27, 28 and 29 at 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
• July 18, 19, and 20, 2022 at 9:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.