A 21-story senior housing tower proposed for 910 Marshall St. in downtown Redwood City has cleared a key design hurdle, with the city’s Architectural Advisory Committee recommending the project’s site plan and building design to the Planning Commission. If ultimately approved, the 258-foot tower would become by far the tallest building in Redwood City, rising well above anything currently standing downtown.
The project, pitched by developer R&M Properties, now needs sign-off from one more governing body before construction can move forward, according to the San Mateo Daily Journal. The revised 21-story application includes 222 senior housing units, 19 assisted living units and 15 memory care units, and committee members described the design as easing the visual impact of introducing such a massive structure to the city’s low-rise downtown core. The project has been discussed at multiple public meetings and is expected to change the character of downtown Redwood City, with one description calling it an icon that is ambitious in scale but contextual to the city around it.
A Tower That Shrank Before It Grew Tall Again
This isn’t the first version of the proposal. R&M Properties originally submitted a 30-story, 345-foot tower with 313 units for the same site in September 2024, a plan that would have made it the tallest building in San Mateo County, as reported by SF YIMBY. The developer temporarily withdrew that plan in February 2025 to adjust financial and design parameters, a move Hoodline covered at the time in its piece on the tower’s temporary shelving. The current 21-story design, nine stories shorter than the original, is the one now headed toward the Planning Commission.
Even scaled back, the tower dwarfs its surroundings. At its planned rooftop height, 910 Marshall Street would surpass the 224-foot Oracle office tower in Redwood Shores and current downtown landmarks such as the 10-story Box headquarters and Indigo apartments, SF YIMBY’s reporting notes.
How State Law Lets the Project Bypass Local Height Limits
The project invokes California’s State Density Bonus Law and is seeking density bonuses and waivers from local zoning limits, including height restrictions. The current plan includes no identified affordable units, the Daily Journal reported…