Carson’s Renaissance luxury apartments to become “workforce housing”

The Renaissance building in Carson — the first luxury apartment complex built in the city’s downtown — is being converted into so-called workforce housing.

City officials announced Sunday having closed a $78 million financing deal for the conversion with a state agency that finances projects with a public benefit, according to KTLA.

The four-story, 150-unit Renaissance was completed in 2013 and has changed hands multiple times since. Thomas Safran & Associates developed the property and sold it to Benedict Canyon Equities for $55 million in 2016.

A partnership that included the state, Carson, and Standard Communities bought the property a few weeks ago for $78 million, according to the Commercial Observer.

The units are a mix of one-to-three bedrooms. Amenities include a pool, gym, game room and barbeque area.

The units will be priced to serve middle-income renters who “cannot afford the upscale housing units being built” in Carson and who “will be eventually priced out of the rental market,” according to a press release from the city.

Standard Communities, a division of Standard Companies, is managing the property and agreed to cap rent increases at 4 percent annually.

The units will be priced for tenants with incomes between 80 percent and 120 percent of the area median income for the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Glendale metro area. A family of four would need an annual income of $90,100 to qualify at the low end of that range.

Existing tenants can’t be evicted even if their incomes are higher than that range and could see rent reductions if they are in that range.

Carson could also get a big influx of housing if developer Faring follows through with plans to build 1,200 units on 27 acres in the city.

[KTLA] — Dennis Lynch