Pacific General eyes apartments designed for roommates in Sunnyvale

For Pacific General Construction’s plan to build 29 apartments in East Sunnyvale, less is more —  as in less apartments and more bedrooms for more potential roommates.

The Milpitas developer has filed plans to build a seven-story complex at 1202 Kifer Road, with each apartment containing three or four bedrooms, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported. It would replace an 8,200-square-foot office building.

In all, the 29-unit complex would have 111 bedrooms – the perfect setup for young people struggling to afford living in an expensive city, with Silicon Valley housing in short supply.

“This is very innovative, and I wish we saw more proposals that were affordable by design,” Planning Commissioner Mike Serrone said during a recent hearing. “It’s really tailored to the world we live in now.”

Plans call for a complex on nearly two-thirds of an acre just off Lawrence Expressway and north of a Costco warehouse store. Of the 29 apartments, 24 would contain four bedrooms.  And four would be set aside as affordable.

Pacific General intends to rent the apartments, but may choose someday to sell them to tenants, a project representative said.

The brown-and-white project, designed by Studio T-SQ, aims to rent to groups who aren’t family members, Howai Lai, a principal with the architecture firm, told the Planning Commission.

Those groups might include younger people who may need to live with roommates to afford to live in the area, said Lai, who spoke about the project on behalf of Pacific General.

One concern commissioners raised is a lack of parking. Pacific General is only proposing to include 50 parking spaces, despite the large number of bedrooms. 

— Dana Bartholomew

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