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MidPen Housing set to buy site of affordable project in Fremont
The East Bay city last week awarded MidPen $14M to acquire and “pre-develop” the site, which is in receivership after its previous owner lost control of it earlier this year
MidPen Housing Corp. is set to buy almost three acres in Fremont in the East Bay after a court-appointed receiver accepted the developer’s offer to acquire the site for $13.5 million.
The site, made up of a pair of adjacent properties at 41965 and 42021 Osgood Road, is in escrow, and MidPen has completed due diligence, the Mercury News reported, citing documents filed this week with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. It’s unclear when the sale is slated to close.
The Osgood Road parcels were previously part of a collection of properties controlled by SiliconSage Builders LLC and its now-former CEO, Sanjeev Acharya. In December, a federal complaint named Acharya and SiliconSage, accusing them of fraud in connection with a $119 million investment offering. Since then, a federal judge authorized a receiver to take control of Acharya’s and SiliconSage’s real estate assets, and Acharya effectively ended his efforts to save his bankrupt business in March.
MidPen beat six other bids to buy the Osgood Road site, all of which came from residential developers, according to the Mercury News. They all aimed to propose a project there that differed from the 284-unit proposal that the city already approved.
In MidPen’s case, it’s evaluating two development concepts, one with a single new building containing between 191 and 271 units and the other containing two new structures with between 191 and 251 units. In either case, about a fifth of the project’s total units would be targeted at extremely low-income households, with the rest split relatively evenly between very-low and low-income residents.
Last week, the Fremont City Council approved a $14 million funding award for MidPen for the acquisition and “pre-development” of the Osgood Road site, according to digital news company Patch. An additional $11.5 million will be needed from the city or other sources to support construction and other activities related to the site’s redevelopment, MidPen estimates.
Assuming the developer chooses the two-building project concept and that it receives Fremont’s approval, the city estimated that it will be complete in October 2026.
[The Mercury News] — Matthew Niksa