"We hope all of our technology will be working and it will just be a normal day," City Manager Lisa Goldman told the San Mateo Daily Journal the week before Burlingame's city offices changed addresses. She meant Tuesday, October 27, the first day the public could walk into the new City Hall at 1440 Chapin Avenue. The old City Hall at 501 Primrose Road had closed to the public at noon the Thursday before so staff could move.
Behind the address change is a lease-to-buy deal. Burlingame agreed to purchase an existing office building for about what a decade of patching its 1970 building would have cost, and it plans to cover part of the bill by selling land. Two city-owned sites downtown are now in play: the Primrose Road property the city just left, and a parking lot on El Camino Real that it plans to sell. Over the long run, those two decisions will shape downtown more than the move itself.
Where to go for what, starting this week
For the next two months, city business is split between two buildings. Here is how it divides as of this week:
- Permits, planning, and most counter business: 1440 Chapin Ave., third floor. The city asks visitors to park in the rear ground-floor lot and not in the building's garage.
- Turn right off the elevators for Public Works, Finance, and Community Development.
- Turn left off the elevators for the City Clerk, City Attorney, and Human Resources.
- Voting on Tuesday, November 3: 501 Primrose Road, which is open as a voting center for the election.
- City Council meetings through December: still in the chambers at 501 Primrose Road.
The city's announcement says the Chapin building is open during regular business hours. Its City Hall Project page has the background on the move.
The biggest everyday change is the counter. The old building's Planning Department was notably cramped. Goldman described the new service counters as "beautiful and big and spacious," with room to "spread out your documents and talk to staff" about a remodel or a Public Works question. Group 4 Architecture designed the interior around one combined public counter, so permits and other business happen in the same place. Group 4 also designed the Burlingame Community Center. "We'll all be in one place, which we think will be a lot more efficient," Goldman told the Daily Journal earlier this year.
Three options, and why the office building won
The council's choice makes more sense once the three options sit side by side. According to the city figures reported by the South Bay Chronicle, the comparison looked like this:
| Option | Estimated cost | What it bought |
|---|---|---|
| Stay and repair 501 Primrose | About $35 million over 10 years, plus more than $300,000 a year in maintenance | The same 1970 building, seismically upgraded |
| Build a new City Hall | $73.4 million to $90 million | A purpose-built civic building |
| Buy 1440 Chapin | $34.5 million purchase, plus a $3,714,000 interior build-out | A finished office building with paying tenants downstairs |
Most of the repair estimate was for systems nobody sees. It included about $10 million for seismic work, $600,000 for asbestos removal, $1.5 million each for plumbing and electrical, $2 million for HVAC, and $500,000 for the roof. Repairs would also have left the city in a building that was already too small for its growing staff.
The council approved the deal on February 18, 2025. The city first leases 26,522 square feet at 1440 Chapin and then buys the whole building for $34.5 million on or before June 30, 2027. Swinerton won the build-out contract on February 2, 2026, and work began March 4. From contract to opening day took less than nine months.
The bill is planned partly in rent and partly in land
The purchase keeps the current tenants in place, and that is part of the math. Once the city owns the building, tenant rent of up to $1,656,000 a year will go toward paying for 1440 Chapin.
The rest is to come from bonds, General Fund reserves, and a land sale. In August, Councilmember Donna Colson estimated the total project cost at about $40 million. She said selling a city parcel at Ralston Avenue and El Camino Real could bring in more than $10 million, and that the bond could be $20 million to $25 million, as reported by the Daily Journal.
That parcel is city parking Lot H at 255 El Camino Real. It sits across El Camino from Safeway and Walgreens, between Burlingame Avenue and Ralston Avenue. According to the council minutes from May 19, 2025, Lot H is two parcels totaling 32,922 square feet. About 8,500 square feet are zoned R-1 and 24,422 square feet are zoned R-3. At that meeting, the council unanimously adopted Resolution 050-2025, which started the state Surplus Land Act process for one or both parcels. The minutes note that the proceeds could reduce or pay off the City Hall debt. Hoodline reported on August 25, 2026, that the city had started closed-session negotiations that month to pick a broker and begin working out sale terms. That report did not name a buyer or a proposed use.
Anyone who parks on that stretch of El Camino to run errands should know the lot is in the middle of a sale process.
Primrose Road has two more jobs this year
The 1970 building is still in use. It is a voting center on November 3, and council meetings continue in its chambers through December. Earlier this year, Colson told the Daily Journal that a new council chamber was being built in the Chapin Avenue building. As of the South Bay Chronicle's October 24 report, the city had not set a timeline for new chambers. Check the posted agenda for the meeting location in the new year.
The building has some history behind it. Kahl, Howell & Whifler designed it, and it opened in 1970 to replace the city's 1914 hall on Park Road. It currently has no historic-preservation status on record. The city has said it is reviewing what preservation rules might apply, after several community members raised the question.
What 501 Primrose can become
The list of options for the Primrose site is short. During the city's earlier outreach, Deputy City Manager Jeremy Kirshner told the Daily Journal that the choices are "largely limited to housing, open space or civic uses." He also said plainly that the existing building "isn't safe to use for another use, or easy for another use, and requires tens of millions in improvements."
The city began asking the public about the site in late 2025. A community survey drew more than 500 responses. According to Kirshner, respondents were open to some form of housing on the property, and workshop participants made keeping some open space a priority. Several also asked for more parking. Those goals can coexist. The city has said that building housing would require selling the property, and that a sale contract could include open-space requirements.
The city also said that most of the early feedback came from homeowners over 45. It specifically asked to hear from people living in multifamily buildings and from younger residents. As of the South Bay Chronicle's October 24, 2026 report, no decision on the site had been made.
That puts the two sites on different tracks. The sale of Lot H on El Camino Real was in negotiation as of August, and the city is counting on that money to help pay for the new building. The Primrose site is still open, and the main options the city has floated would change how that block of downtown is used. While the council keeps meeting on Primrose Road through December, the public can still attend meetings and speak in the building whose future is on the table.
If you're following what happens to 501 Primrose or Lot H, or wondering what the new counter means for a remodel or ADU you have planned, Sandy has served on the Planning Commission and can walk you through how these decisions usually unfold. Comaroto Properties is glad to talk it through with you. Request a personalized consultation.
