Construction crews broke ground Tuesday, Aug. 11, on a 368-unit apartment complex at 3150 El Camino Real, launching Palo Alto's largest housing project to reach the building phase in years on the former site of The Fish Market restaurant and a McDonald's.

Menlo Park-based Acclaim Companies is developing the seven-story building on 2.5 acres of Stanford University-owned land between Hansen Way and Page Mill Road. The project will stand 85 feet tall and include 74 deed-restricted affordable units for households earning between 50% and 80% of the area median income, roughly 20% of the total.

As we reported Aug. 4, the groundbreaking had been scheduled for Aug. 11 following city approval in July 2025.

At a May 28, 2025, meeting, an Acclaim Companies executive described the 74 below-market-rate units as one of the largest affordable housing contributions in Palo Alto's history, according to NRIPage reporting.

What's in the building

The 627,740-square-foot structure will contain 443,500 square feet of housing and 184,240 square feet of underground parking across two basement levels, according to SF YIMBY. The unit mix: 12 studios, 231 one-bedrooms, 97 two-bedrooms and 28 three-bedrooms. Parking will accommodate 382 cars and 410 bicycles.

Studio T Square designed the building, which will feature wood-grain fiber cement panels and plaster on the exterior, with stone veneer and porcelain tiles at street level. Two rooftop courtyards will sit atop the podium-style structure, with landscape architecture by The Guzzardo Partnership.

How it got here

The project's path to approval traced through a state housing law. Acclaim Companies filed its initial proposal in early 2023 under California's builder's remedy provision, which allows developers to exceed local zoning limits when a city lacks a state-certified housing element. Palo Alto's Housing Element wasn't certified until August 2024, more than 18 months past the state deadline.

Rather than fight the application, the city revised its El Camino Real zoning code, raising the height limit from 50 feet to 85 feet and increasing allowed density to accommodate the project. The planning department issued tentative approval on July 11, 2025.

A corridor in transition

The site sits about a mile from the California Avenue Caltrain station in what the city's housing plan identifies as a prime destination for new density. At least eight housing developments are approved or in the pipeline along a half-mile stretch of El Camino between Page Mill Road and Curtner Avenue in the Barron Park area, including a 321-unit project at 3606 El Camino Real that the City Council approved unanimously in April.

The Barron Park Association has raised concerns about the cumulative traffic and bicycle safety impacts of multiple large projects on the neighborhood's narrow side streets. Star Teachout, speaking for the association at the April council meeting on the nearby 3606 project, pushed for garage driveways to open onto El Camino rather than side streets, arguing that the configuration "pressures drivers to find alternate modes and it promotes more cycling on the new bike paths."

Construction is underway. Neither Acclaim Companies nor Stanford has disclosed a completion timeline or total project cost for 3150 El Camino Real. Palo Alto must build 6,086 new housing units by 2031 under state mandate.