Texas Investor Defaults on Bay Area Development Site

The owner of a housing development site in Hayward has fallen into loan default, throwing into question the future of the project in the East Bay.

An entity of Texas-based real estate entrepreneur Amit Goel owns the property, at 22330 Main Street, and is delinquent on the $28 million loan for the property, the Mercury News reported.

Goel bought the 3.9-acre tract in 2023 for $15.8 million, over $4 million per acre, after its previous owner was forced into receivership. The Goel entity then secured a $28 million loan for the property from Timberlake Mortgage.

Goel applied to build 314 apartments with 7,100 square feet of retail space at the corner of Main and A streets. Nineteen of the units were to be set aside for low-income and very-low-income income residents.

Hayward officials approved the project in 2022, lauded as a development to increase housing supply, but construction never started.

The City of Hayward is mandated by the state to plan for 4,624 total new housing units by 2031 as part of its housing element.

Other housing developments in the pipeline in Hayward include a four-story, 30-unit complex proposed by Zibasara. That project was approved last year for a 1-acre site at 22422 Rockaway Lane.

Earlier this month, Namdar Realty Group bought the Southland Mall in Hayward from Brookfield Properties for $70 million cash. The purchase price worked out to $64 per square foot for the 1.1 million-square-foot retail complex anchored by Macy’s, JCPenney, Ross Dress for Less, Hobby Lobby and Cinemark.

Houston-based Goel took a spin in the Chicago multifamily market’s wild ride to recovery recently. The landlord was struggling to turn a profit on a high-interest, $130 million loan from MF1 ahead of its May 2024 maturity. But Goel landed $130 million refinancing from Bridge Investment Group in July for the property, at 500 Station Boulevard in Aurora, as Chicago’s market bounced back.

— Chris Malone Méndez