Community Corporation of Santa Monica Development Director Jesús Hernandez and the assemblage of parcels on 14th Street
The Community Corporation of Santa Monica has closed on its purchase of an assemblage of lots, where it intends to build something rare in the city: an affordable housing development.
The affordable developer paid a $12 million for the property at 1834-1848 14th Street, from the Brahms Family Trust of Beverly Hills. The property is around 0.7 acres. The sale closed last month.
The Community Corporation wants to replace the aging, low-slung commercial buildings with a three-story mixed-use project that would include 55 affordable units and 3,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, Urbanize has reported.
The project is expected to cost around $42 million, with Santa Monica having provided just over $14 million. The city also provided the funding for a 39-unit senior affordable project that the Community Corporation wants to build on two neighboring lots, according to the Santa Monica Observer.
The Community Corporation develops and manages affordable properties around Santa Monica. Among the properties under its management is Steve Witkoff’s 64-unit Arroyo complex, which opened in December.
The office development pipeline in Santa Monica is robust, thanks to demand from technology companies. That is not the case with housing development, especially the affordable variety. Just 61 affordable units were approved last year in the city and the year before that, just five units.
WS Communities, an offshoot of NMS Properties, agreed to build a 50-unit affordable project earlier this month in exchange for approvals for two other market-rate projects.