A pair of approved affordable housing projects in southwest San Jose has moved closer to reality after city officials authorized a state-run entity to issue $160 million in bonds to finance and refinance their acquisition and construction.
San Jose City Council unanimously voted this week to approve the issuance of $95 million in tax-exempt multifamily housing bonds for one project and $65 million in bonds for another roughly six miles away.
The City Council’s decision authorized the California Municipal Finance Authority to issue bonds to fund a seven-story, 271-unit project at 1007 Blossom Hill Road and a five-story, 123-unit development at 2350 South Bascom Avenue.
City Councilwoman Pam Foley, whose district includes both projects, said during the Nov. 8 meeting that they are “evidence that District 9 has affordable housing coming to our area. That’s a total of 394 affordable housing units coming into District 9 probably within a year or so.” The developments are part of a pipeline of several affordable housing ones in the district tucked in San Jose’s southwest corner, bordering Campbell and Los Gatos.
The larger project by Jemcor Development Partners would demolish a nearly 2-acre shuttered restaurant site along Blossom Hill Road to clear the way for a mix of apartments, mainly two-bedroom units, with a few one- and three-beds, according to an Oct. 17 memorandum to the City Council.
All but four of those homes would be targeted to families making between 30 and 70 percent of the local median income, or between roughly $35,000 and $71,000 a year for a single-person household, according to the memorandum and the latest California Department of Housing and Community Development data.
Proceeds from Jemcor’s $95 million bond allocation and other sources of financing, including low-income tax credit equity, will finance the project’s construction, the city’s memo said. Jemcor had all funding sources in place and wasn’t seeking loan money from the city before this week’s City Council vote, the memo said. That makes it likely that the bond allocation the developer applied for was the last chunk of capital it needed to build the project, which San Jose planning official John Tu unilaterally approved in August.
The smaller project along South Bascom Avenue is similar to Jemcor’s in that it involves demolishing a retail site, in this case a 5,000-square-foot building last occupied by home theater store Golden Pacific Systems. The company recently relocated to a new address two miles south, although it’s unclear if one or more retailers backfilled its previous outpost.
A partnership of Maracor Development and Pacific West Communities seeks to bulldoze the 1-acre site and build a mix of apartments ranging from studios to three-bedroom units. The project would provide housing for individuals and families earning between 30 and 80 percent of the local median income, or between roughly $35,000 and $94,000 a year for a single-person household. Like Jemcor, Maracor and Pacific West had all funding sources in place except for a bond allocation from the state before the City Council’s vote.
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