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New Downtown High Rise Apartments Provide Affordable Housing

by Sasha Foo, KUSI News
July 19, 2016

SAN DIEGO - It will be high-rise living, with downtown views and it will soon be open to families who are looking for a more affordable place to live.

It may look like just another high rise apartment or condo building, but this one is different. The building that's going up at Fourth Ave. and Beech falls in a special niche, it's helping to fill an ever larger void in affordable housing.

State lawmaker and Assembly Speaker Emeritus Toni Atkins says she's a champion of developments like this new apartment complex, called "Atmosphere."

The 205-unit apartment building will give families the chance to live in more affordable housing. It's actually two projects in one building. One is for families in search of more affordable housing. The other is for tenants with special needs.

To qualify for the below-market rental units, a family of four must make no more than $51,000 a year. The developers sees this as a future home for many of the people who work in the restaurants, shops and tourism related businesses downtown. The second project will hold 51 units for people who need additional services and some extra attention to make a fresh start.

The money for the $80 million project poured in from multiple partners, from Sacramento, U.S. Bank, Civic San Diego and the San Diego Housing Commission.

To celebrate the work that's been done so far, Developer Wakeland Housing invited its partners to the topping off ceremony, a ritual signing of the last and final steel beam before it's hoisted to the top of the 12-story building.

The topping off ceremony represents the halfway mark, in the construction phase.