Q Village Cites Builder’s Remedy to Revamp Military Housing

Q Village aims to employ the builder’s remedy to renovate 286 former Coast Guard apartments in Concord.

The Las Vegas-based developer has filed plans to use the state housing loophole to rehab surplus government housing at 3295 Haleakala Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Q Village bought the 59-acre Concord Villages apartment complex at auction in 2021 for $58.4 million.

The firm led by Eddie Haddad and Georges Maalouf then proposed renovating the former Coast Guard apartments to lease them while pondering a long-term development, including up to 2,000 homes.

The bridge plan stalled when the city demanded a master plan for high-density housing. The City of Concord, which had tried to buy the property in 2018, wants to replace the former military site with as many as 800 homes.

The site is now zoned for military use, and would require new zoning in order to renovate or redevelop the apartments.

Enter builder’s remedy, an untested provision of the state’s 30-year-old housing law that allows developers to skirt local zoning rules if cities and counties fail to meet state-mandated housing deadlines.

Any city without a state-approved plan must accept a builder’s remedy project, advocates and developers say, as long as at least 20 percent of the units are affordable. Local governments in the Bay Area had until Jan. 31 to get approval for their Housing Element plans.

Q Village filed what may be the first builder’s remedy application involving home renovations, Bryan Wenter, a Walnut Creek-based attorney at Miller Starr Regalia who is working with Q Villages, told the Business Times.

He said his client had submitted the builder’s remedy application to move forward with the renovations. Getting the building permits could happen in as little as 60 days — which would be impossible if Q Village sought a needed general plan amendment and rezoning approvals.

Maalouf said his company spent the last two years trying to work out the details of a renovation with the city, but negotiations came to “a standstill.”

“We are not opposed to redevelopment. We are aligned with the city on the long-term goals of the property,” Maalouf told the Business Times. “Based on market conditions and the cost of construction, we just don’t feel like that is feasible right now, and we want to put these units to immediate use.”

The 286 long-vacant units are at two different sites at Concord Villages, including 206 units at Victory Village and 80 at Quinault Village. It contains 40 duplexes built in 1965 and 42 apartment buildings built in 1989, near the North Concord BART station, according to Loopnet.

The developer has said renovating the former military housing next to the former Concord Naval Weapons Station would cost between $1 million and $3 million.