Costantini Team | Bay Area, CA Real Estate Experts

On May 4, 2026, Redwood City cut the ribbon on the new Veterans Memorial Building and Senior Center at 1333 Madison Avenue. That came 1,753 days after the first shovel went into the ground on July 16, 2021. The building cost $56 million and covers 45,000 square feet. It sits on the edge of Red Morton Park, a short walk south of Jefferson Avenue.

For Mount Carmel, the building matters because of where it stands. On the City's neighborhood association map, Mount Carmel runs from Whipple Avenue down to Jefferson, so the neighborhood's largest public park and its new civic building sit just past its southern line. This campus is also being finished in phases. The building is open, the playground has been open for years, the pool is waiting on someone else's fundraising, and the street between the park and the neighborhood is scheduled for 2027. This fall you get a specific, usable version of Red Morton, with two pieces still to come.

The Line on the Map

The City's map for the Mt. Carmel Neighborhood Association comes with a caution that it is illustrative and street locations may be approximate. Read the usual way, Jefferson Avenue is the southern boundary. Red Morton Park lies just beyond it, at 1120 Roosevelt Avenue, bordered by Valota Road, Madison Avenue and Vera Street.

The park already carries a lot. The City lists baseball and soccer fields, a full basketball court, four tennis courts, four pickleball courts, bocce, horseshoes, picnic and barbecue areas, restrooms and open grass. Red Morton Community Center, at the Roosevelt address, has a gym, fitness center, Youth Center, preschool, drop-in basketball and volleyball, classes and sports leagues. For years the gap was a single building where the whole town could gather, and that is the piece that came back in May.

How the Building Opened

The City staggered the opening, and the order shows who the building serves first:

July 16, 2021. Ground breaks on the rebuild. The project scope includes demolishing the existing senior center, pool and NFL alumni buildings at Madison Avenue and Nevada Street.
May 4, 2026. Ribbon cutting, with council members, county supervisors, local veterans and former 49ers.
May 5, 2026. The weekday Senior Lunch Program starts, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
June 8, 2026. Full programming begins throughout the building.

Inside are a 279-seat auditorium, multipurpose rooms, wellness and fitness areas, and a rebuilt commercial kitchen for the senior lunch program. There is also a gym with a half basketball court, indoor pickleball and volleyball, and an auxiliary community space. Council member Marcella Padilla credited community members with the idea for the rooftop garden. The City expects the building to earn LEED Platinum, the highest level of green building certification.

The building is also a museum of sorts. Multimedia exhibits honor veterans, the Redwood City NFL Alumni Association and the San Francisco 49ers, who trained at the site for years. Veteran groups including the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars will keep meeting there. Steve Young spoke at the opening:

"This building is a representation that we're all aging, but you know what, we don't age and die, we age and thrive."

The Redwood City Pulse coverage of the opening includes Monica Colodres, 70. Her late wife attended the center's Adaptive Physical Education program for 20 years, and the two came to the groundbreaking together before her wife died.

What a $20 Card Gets You

For older adults, the most practical news is the price. The City sells an annual Club Card for $20. Card holders check in to use:

The lounge, the half-court gym and the outdoor walking track, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday
Pickleball, basketball and ping pong
Free coffee or tea in the Redwood Room, weekdays from 8 to 10 a.m.
Priority registration for special-event lunches, plus select programs marked with the Club Card icon

Seniors without a card can use the lounge and gym for $1 a day after signing a waiver. Lunch is open to adults 60 and older on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It is served snack-bar style and cooked to order, with a $12 "Blue Plate" option every weekday. The daily menu is on a recorded line at (650) 780-7259.

Classes and ongoing programs are aimed at adults 50 and older. Ten clubs meet at the center, and more than 140 volunteers help staff run programs and events. Free and low-cost senior programs from the old building are expected to stay that way in the new one. The City's senior services page links the Club Card signup and the latest Redwood City Sentinel newsletter.

October Across the Street

The building turns Red Morton into a place for every age, but the busiest October dates are still for kids. The Magical Bridge Playground opened on December 1, 2020. It is free, open daily from 8 a.m. to sunset, and built for all ages and abilities. Features include wheelchair-accessible slides with "Dignity Landings," a laser harp, a wheelchair-accessible carousel, the Kindness Corner, and tot-zone water play. The City describes the water features as sensory play, not splash pads. The City's playground page currently lists the Rope Spinner and the Spin Zone Accessible Ground Spinner as closed for maintenance.

The City's calendar for this month and next:

Saturday, October 10. Free art project at Magical Bridge
Sunday, October 11. "Magical Music & Motion: Magic Balloons!" at Magical Bridge
Saturday, October 24. Another free art project at Magical Bridge, plus the Halloween Spooktacular at Red Morton Community Center
Saturday, November 7. Art at Magical Bridge
Sunday, November 8. Woodside Cheer at Magical Bridge

The Halloween Spooktacular runs from noon to 3 p.m. on the 24th. It is meant for kids up to age 10 and costs $10 per child, with parents and guardians free. There are carnival games, a Monster Maze, crafts, photo backdrops, a mini pumpkin patch and a Haunted Ambulance hosted by AMR. Pre-registration closes Friday, October 23, at 4 p.m., and drop-ins are still accepted on the day. With the art project and the Spooktacular on the same afternoon, a family can spend most of that Saturday on one block of Roosevelt.

The Two Pieces Still Missing

The first missing piece is the pool. The old pool at Madison and Nevada was on the City's demolition list for the project. The new building's amenity list has no pool. In May 2026, the Pulse reported that the YMCA of Silicon Valley was still raising money for that building. Plans call for pools, an early childhood learning center, and a fitness and wellness center. No later timeline has been published, so swimming at Red Morton depends on that campaign.

The second is the walk over. In a story on the City Council's approval, the San Mateo Daily Journal reported that the fully funded $8 million Jefferson Avenue Traffic Safety Improvement Project is planned for construction in the second half of 2027. It removes one travel lane in each direction between Farm Hill Boulevard and Iris Street and adds a center turn lane and a bike lane or protected bikeway. Some intersections get rectangular rapid flashing beacons or HAWK crosswalk signals. From Iris and Hudson toward El Camino Real, Jefferson keeps two lanes each way, with shared-lane markings for bikes.

For the park, the key line in the plan is a new traffic signal at Valota, the street on Red Morton's western edge. The city has already added a signal at Cleveland Street and a HAWK signal at Clinton Street. The new work is timed with scheduled repaving to limit disruption and is expected to take eight to 12 months. Until then, getting from Mount Carmel to the new building means crossing Jefferson as it is today.

Questions about the blocks around Red Morton, or what's changing on Jefferson before 2027? Vicky and Enzo have known this part of Redwood City for generations and follow every new phase of the park. If you're thinking about a move nearby, The Costantini Team can walk you through it. Schedule a consultation.