Jamboree Completes Hotel-to-Affordable Project in San Jose
This marked the first hotel-to-affordable conversion in the history of Mountain View, Calif.
A partnership of Jamboree Housing Corp., the City of Mountain View and the County of Santa Clara has opened The Heartwood Apartments, a 49-unit affordable community in Mountain View, Calif. The project was an adaptive reuse of a 66-key hotel, with total development costs landing at $47.2 million.
This marked the first time a hotel turned into affordable housing in Mountain View’s history, according to the developer. More than 25 percent of the units—13 apartments—are reserved for transitional-age youths, while the remaining cater to residents earning up to 30 percent of the area median income.
Heartwood comprises studio, one- and two-bedroom units. The ground floor features a community room with a kitchen, a laundry room, as well as a computer lab and conference room. In addition, Jamboree operates several service offices providing guidance, mentorship and resources to residents seeking employment opportunities.
READ ALSO: Turning Vacant Properties Into Affordable Housing
The nonprofit provides identical services at another hotel-to-affordable redevelopment in San Jose, Calif. Funding for that 43-unit community, dubbed Sunrise Pavilion, rose upward of $32 million.
Located at 901 E. El Camino Real, Heartwood is about 14 miles northwest of downtown San Jose. Featuring a water fountain and a small botanical garden, as well as bike trails, Sleeper Park is roughly 2 miles away.
The funding of a hotel-to-affordable conversion
Work kicked off on the adaptive reuse project in 2023, one year after the project had secured an award of $16.7 million from the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s Homekey Program—a statewide effort to sustain and expand housing for individuals experiencing or are at risk of homelessness.
Additionally, the County of Santa Clara provided the project with $8 million through its 2016 Measure AÂ Affordable Housing Bond. Additional funding from the county included $6.8 million through programs such as No Place Like Home and the American Rescue Plan Act. Heartwood was one of the 50 developments funded through the $950 million bond which sought the construction of more than 5,100 affordable units.
Moreover, the County also awarded 48 Section 8 Project-Based Vouchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide rental assistance for the residents.
The City of Mountain View contributed $9.1 million to the conversion through programs such as HOME, Community Project Funding and Community Development Block Grant.
San Jose’s affordable pipeline holds steady
Metro San Jose’s pipeline included more than 2,500 units underway across 18 fully affordable projects, Yardi Matrix data reveals. The figure accounted for nearly 30 percent of the total number of multifamily units under construction—more than 8,700.
Developers completed more than 1,000 units in fully affordable projects during the first 10 months of the year across the metro, the data provider shows. This was nearly half of the 2,600 total number of apartments that came online during this period.
In April, Affirmed Housing completed Vitalia, contributing to the metro’s affordable stock. The 79-unit community caters to residents earning up to 60 percent AMI.
