Developer gets land for 100 affordable apartments in Downtown San Jose

Los Gatos-based Milestone Housing pays $5.1M for two parcels

Milestone Housing Group's Marcus Griffin with 934, 938, 942 and 948 East Santa Clara Street (Milestone Housing Group, Google Maps)
Milestone Housing Group's Marcus Griffin with 934, 938, 942 and 948 East Santa Clara Street (Milestone Housing Group, Google Maps)

A developer has filed plans to build a mixed-use apartment complex with nearly 100 affordable units in Downtown San Jose.

Los Gatos-based Milestone Housing Group has proposed the 99-unit complex on two parcels it just bought through an affiliate near the corner of East Santa Clara Street and South 20th Street, the San Jose Mercury News reported. It paid a combined $5.1 million for the properties.

The mixed-use complex would include 2,500 feet of ground-floor shops and restaurants at 934, 938, 942 and 948 E. Santa Clara St., and would mean demolishing commercial buildings containing existing businesses.

Milestone Housing bought the two parcels on nearly half an acre this month with a single-story building containing a bridal shop, tailor shop and beauty lounge. A second building houses an auto body and paint shop.

At the same time, the developer secured $4.8 million in financing from Enterprise Community Loan Fund, a nonprofit that specializes in funding affordable homes, the newspaper reported.

“San Jose desperately needs to build as much affordable housing as it can muster,” said Bob Staedler, principal executive with Silicon Valley Synergy, a land-use consultancy.

The real estate developer didn’t respond to a request for comment about its housing plans.

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Milestone Housing, founded in 2019, has developed three housing projects in San Jose and single residential projects in Livermore, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and in Santa Cruz, according to its website.

“We produce housing for individuals and families with a variety of needs, including permanent housing for the homeless, veterans and individuals with disabilities, along with traditional family and senior housing,” the company states.

San Jose, with some of the highest home prices and rents in the nation, has fallen far short of meeting its state-mandated housing goals.

From January 2014 to this October, it was supposed to build nearly 21,000 affordable housing units. By last month, it had built 5,057 affordable units – while surpassing goals for market-rate housing.

And that doesn’t include the 62,000 units San Jose must build in the next housing element by 2031, of which more than half must be for households of very low, low and moderate incomes.

[San Jose Mercury News] – Dana Bartholomew

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