Community Housing to Build Homes on Berkeley Church Site

Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond wants to build an 80-unit affordable complex for seniors behind a church in south Berkeley.

The Richmond-based nonprofit developer has requested building permits to construct the five-story complex at Ephesians Church of God in Christ at 1708 Harmon Street, SFYimby reported. It would replace a parking lot and two small outbuildings.

Plans call for 80 affordable apartments and a courtyard atop a ground-level garage for 61 cars and 43 bicycles.

The apartments would include 79 affordable one-bedroom units for seniors and a two-bedroom, market-rate unit for a manager. The complex would include 22 apartments for households who earn 30 percent of area median income, 15 units for those who earn 45 percent and 42 units for people who earn 50 percent of AMI.

The 1-acre project, designed by locally based Kodama Diseno Architects, would have two five-story, 20,000-square-foot wings, with the church taking up an eighth of the property and 26 parking slots in the garage.

The brown and white complex would be clad in redwood panels, stucco and concrete, with expansive bay windows topped by wide eaves, according to renderings.

A ground-level plaza would connect the church and the senior housing.

The new building permits say that Community Housing Development will get funding from the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, though the specific amount was not disclosed.

The cost of the project and a timeline for construction were not disclosed.

The Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond was founded in 1990 by local leaders working to eliminate blight, improve housing opportunities and create better economic conditions. The Black-led developer has built and managed 22 complexes in the Bay Area, including four senior facilities for 3,200 residents, according to its website.

— Dana Bartholomew