Construction to Begin on Affordable Apartments at San Jose's Tamien Station
A San Jose developer has lined up nearly $140 million in public funding to build 134 affordable homes and a subsidized child care center on VTA land, the first such project on agency property in more than two decades.
By Naledi Dlamini ·
Construction is slated to start this month on an affordable housing development beside the Tamien VTA and Caltrain station in San Jose, as of the article's July 7, 2023 date.
San Jose-based developer The Core Companies has secured nearly $140 million in city, county and state funding for the Tamien Station housing and retail project, which sits on land owned by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority. The project will include 134 affordable apartments and a subsidized child care facility. Officials said it will be the first housing development to begin construction on VTA property in more than 20 years under the agency's long-term transit-oriented development plan.
Jessie O'Malley Solis, VTA's transit-oriented development program manager, told San José Spotlight that passersby should soon notice activity at the site. "When you drive by in a week or two you're going to start seeing all the fences going up and excavation starting shortly after that," she said.
The funding comes from several sources, according to a VTA statement. San Jose contributed $17 million, and Santa Clara County provided $25 million in Measure A funds. The California Department of Housing and Community Development awarded $31 million in grants, and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee granted a $66 million bond allocation.
The 134 affordable units will be priced for households earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income. For a family of four in Santa Clara County, that translates to roughly $53,000 a year at the 30% level and about $107,000 at the 60% level. About half of the apartments will be set aside for people in the Santa Clara County Rapid Rehousing program, which prioritizes housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Core Companies is working with VTA and a second developer, Republic Urban Properties, on the site at 1197 Lick Ave. A later phase calls for two market-rate buildings with another 434 apartments. The buildings will occupy about seven acres of the 12.5-acre VTA property.
VTA will receive about $3 million upfront for the land lease on the affordable housing portion. For the market-rate portion, once construction begins the agency will collect $660,000 a year, with periodic increases, adding up to about $100 million over a potential 85-year lease.
The project is part of a revamped transit-oriented development program that VTA has been planning for more than five years. The agency aims to raise ridership and revenue while using its land to help address the need for both market-rate and affordable housing in Santa Clara County. About 1,600 apartments or homes are currently in the pipeline across several projects, with Tamien leading the way and others in long-range planning.
O'Malley Solis said VTA envisions more than 11 million square feet of residential and commercial space on its land over the coming decades, generating up to 15,000 new daily riders. "Over the course of our full buildout, which we anticipate taking through around 2040 or 2045, we anticipate building out over 7,000 units total, and about 3,000 of those are going to be affordable housing," she said. "It's exciting momentum and we can't wait to keep on schedule with more groundbreakings to come."
Originally published by News Media House · Source: San José Spotlight
