City Heights Expanding its Affordable Housing, Adding a YMCA Facility
by Thor Kamban Biberman
The Daily Transcript
March 10, 2014
The face of City Heights continues to evolve with soon-to-be redeveloped affordable multifamily housing and a major YMCA.
Downtown San Diego-based Wakeland Housing & Development, which has developed and or owned 6,000 affordable multifamily housing units throughout California, has teamed up with City Heights Community Development Corp.(City Heights CDC) and The Richmond Group of Boulder, Colo. to rehabilitate 130 multifamily units in 10 different properties in central San Diego.
The apartments are located on 43rd, 44th and 48th streets and Highland, Euclid and Van Dyke avenues.
The properties, all within a quarter mile of each other, were owned by City Heights CDC. They were sold for a total of $7.64 million to a limited partnership known as City Heights 10 L.P. in mid-February.
The partnership consists of Wakeland as the managing partner, City Heights CDC as the co-managing general partner, and Richmond as the limited partner.
Richmond, which will provide an undetermined amount of capital for the upgrades, was also recruited to line up tax credits for the project.
"Everybody's excited about the opportunity for public market tax credits," said Hanan Bowman, City Heights CDC housing director, adding that tax-exempt bonds will also be part of the financial package.
Wakeland works with a variety of municipalities, developers and successors to redevelopment agencies throughout California. It utilizes federal, state and local funding resources including tax exempt bonds and tax credits to leverage other funds from the private and public sectors.
Ken Sauder, Wakeland CEO, said upon the City Heights sales, any existing bank and San Diego Housing Commission loans were paid off.
Wakeland may be new to City Heights, but has been active in other parts of San Diego County and Northern California. The firm upgraded the 504-unit Canyon Rim Apartments in Rancho Penasquitos, as well as the 312-unit Coronado Terrace Apartments, which despite the name is located on 25th Street in San Diego.
A 350-unit multifamily property known as Muirlands in San Ramon in Northern California was one of the larger properties Wakefield rehabilitated.
In City Heights, Sauder said the firm will refurbish the units, upgrade kitchens to modern standards, and improve the living and common areas. He hopes to have the work completed later this year.
"These units are going to be there for the long haul," Sauder said. "City Heights has always been proactive about adding value to its units. This matters tremendously for affordable housing."
Bowman said the CDC's goal is to acquire contiguous multifamily properties "so we can get a critical mass. It will have more of an impact on the neighborhood."
The City Heights project is just one in an ongoing effort by the City Heights CDC to rehabilitate as many smaller apartment properties as possible.
A City Heights CDC newsletter reported that at of the end of 2013, the CDC and its partners acquired and rehabilitated 346 apartments -- since the mid-1990s -- including Hollywood Palms (94 units), Metro Villas (120 units) and 132 units in smaller properties.
The new additions bring this figure to 476.
Along with the units in this latest transaction, the City Heights CDC owns or co-owns numerous properties. These are owned exclusively by the CDC.
"We also have two other properties in escrow," Bowman said. "We plan to develop a pipeline of newly rehabilitated affordable housing."
The apartments are restricted to families who make less than 60 percent of the median income.
While the CDC has focused heavily on multifamily residential, Bowman said plans call for his agency to become more active on the commercial side.
"This is a new area for us," Bowman said, adding that along with storefront improvements, "business improvement districts are certainly on the table as well."
Still smarting from the loss of an Albertson's store within the past few weeks, City Heights is waiting to see which retailer will fill the site at 4421 University Ave. owned by Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM).
"Albertson's [which continues to lease the site] is involved in discussions," Bowman said.
City Heights might not have a new tenant for the Albertson's space yet, but Bowman said the community will have plenty to cheer about with the addition of the projected $34 million Copley-Price Family YMCA.
The 53,000-square-foot, LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) facility will include indoor and outdoor pools, a gymnasium, child care centers, a teen center, computer lab, three group exercise rooms, a 7,500-square-foot fitness and wellness center, demonstration kitchen, outdoor soccer arena, and a parking garage with room for bicycles and 300 cars.
The new YMCA will be able to serve more than 16,000 people, while the old facility served about 8,500 residents annually and 1,000 children daily through child care, and before and after-school programs.
The YMCA, which is being relocated from its old site on Landis Street onto El Cajon Boulevard, is slated for completion in November.
"This is going to do wonders for this community," Bowman said.
The Daily Transcript
March 10, 2014
The face of City Heights continues to evolve with soon-to-be redeveloped affordable multifamily housing and a major YMCA.
Downtown San Diego-based Wakeland Housing & Development, which has developed and or owned 6,000 affordable multifamily housing units throughout California, has teamed up with City Heights Community Development Corp.(City Heights CDC) and The Richmond Group of Boulder, Colo. to rehabilitate 130 multifamily units in 10 different properties in central San Diego.
The apartments are located on 43rd, 44th and 48th streets and Highland, Euclid and Van Dyke avenues.
The properties, all within a quarter mile of each other, were owned by City Heights CDC. They were sold for a total of $7.64 million to a limited partnership known as City Heights 10 L.P. in mid-February.
The partnership consists of Wakeland as the managing partner, City Heights CDC as the co-managing general partner, and Richmond as the limited partner.
Richmond, which will provide an undetermined amount of capital for the upgrades, was also recruited to line up tax credits for the project.
"Everybody's excited about the opportunity for public market tax credits," said Hanan Bowman, City Heights CDC housing director, adding that tax-exempt bonds will also be part of the financial package.
Wakeland works with a variety of municipalities, developers and successors to redevelopment agencies throughout California. It utilizes federal, state and local funding resources including tax exempt bonds and tax credits to leverage other funds from the private and public sectors.
Ken Sauder, Wakeland CEO, said upon the City Heights sales, any existing bank and San Diego Housing Commission loans were paid off.
Wakeland may be new to City Heights, but has been active in other parts of San Diego County and Northern California. The firm upgraded the 504-unit Canyon Rim Apartments in Rancho Penasquitos, as well as the 312-unit Coronado Terrace Apartments, which despite the name is located on 25th Street in San Diego.
A 350-unit multifamily property known as Muirlands in San Ramon in Northern California was one of the larger properties Wakefield rehabilitated.
In City Heights, Sauder said the firm will refurbish the units, upgrade kitchens to modern standards, and improve the living and common areas. He hopes to have the work completed later this year.
"These units are going to be there for the long haul," Sauder said. "City Heights has always been proactive about adding value to its units. This matters tremendously for affordable housing."
Bowman said the CDC's goal is to acquire contiguous multifamily properties "so we can get a critical mass. It will have more of an impact on the neighborhood."
The City Heights project is just one in an ongoing effort by the City Heights CDC to rehabilitate as many smaller apartment properties as possible.
A City Heights CDC newsletter reported that at of the end of 2013, the CDC and its partners acquired and rehabilitated 346 apartments -- since the mid-1990s -- including Hollywood Palms (94 units), Metro Villas (120 units) and 132 units in smaller properties.
The new additions bring this figure to 476.
Along with the units in this latest transaction, the City Heights CDC owns or co-owns numerous properties. These are owned exclusively by the CDC.
"We also have two other properties in escrow," Bowman said. "We plan to develop a pipeline of newly rehabilitated affordable housing."
The apartments are restricted to families who make less than 60 percent of the median income.
While the CDC has focused heavily on multifamily residential, Bowman said plans call for his agency to become more active on the commercial side.
"This is a new area for us," Bowman said, adding that along with storefront improvements, "business improvement districts are certainly on the table as well."
Still smarting from the loss of an Albertson's store within the past few weeks, City Heights is waiting to see which retailer will fill the site at 4421 University Ave. owned by Kimco Realty Corp. (NYSE: KIM).
"Albertson's [which continues to lease the site] is involved in discussions," Bowman said.
City Heights might not have a new tenant for the Albertson's space yet, but Bowman said the community will have plenty to cheer about with the addition of the projected $34 million Copley-Price Family YMCA.
The 53,000-square-foot, LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) facility will include indoor and outdoor pools, a gymnasium, child care centers, a teen center, computer lab, three group exercise rooms, a 7,500-square-foot fitness and wellness center, demonstration kitchen, outdoor soccer arena, and a parking garage with room for bicycles and 300 cars.
The new YMCA will be able to serve more than 16,000 people, while the old facility served about 8,500 residents annually and 1,000 children daily through child care, and before and after-school programs.
The YMCA, which is being relocated from its old site on Landis Street onto El Cajon Boulevard, is slated for completion in November.
"This is going to do wonders for this community," Bowman said.