SF Development Bags $58M in Pension Fund Investment
101 Polk, an $82.8 million multifamily development in San Francisco, has secured a $58 million financing commitment toward its development from the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT).
By Dees Stribling, Contributing Writer
101 Polk. Via the San Francisco Planning Department. Rendering by Solomon Cordwell Buenz.
San Francisco—101 Polk, an $82.8 million multifamily development in San Francisco, has secured a $58 million financing commitment toward its development from the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust (HIT). As usual with financing from the HIT, the project will use all-union construction workers, about 350 all together.
The property is the HIT’s latest investment with Red Mortgage Capital LLC, and the Emerald Fund, the project developer. Most recently, the pension fund worked with the two to provide financing for the $105 million Rincon Green @ 333 Harrison apartments in San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood.
The 13-story 101 Polk will include 162 residential units, including studios, and one- and two-bedroom residences, along with underground parking space for about 50 vehicles and 60 bicycles, and a rooftop terrace. In acknowledgement of the severe shortage of affordable housing in the city, 19 of the units at 101 Polk will be affordable to residents earning up to 55 percent of area median income.
The project is designed to meet California’s GreenPoint Program requirements. In fact, according to the HIT, the building will exceed the California Energy Commission’s Title 24 requirements, which promote greater energy efficiency. The development will also add apartments in a highly walkable area. According to Walk Score, the site gets a 97 out of 100 in terms of walkability, putting it in a “Walker’s Paradise.”
When complete, 101 Polk will be adjacent to the city’s Civic Center in the Civic Center-Tenderloin neighborhood (a.k.a Central Market), an area that’s undergoing significant renovation. The HIT CIO Stephanie H. Wiggins explains that “the project supports the city’s goal of revitalizing Central Market by providing residential development that’s affordable to people of all income levels.”
Solomon Cordwell Buenz & Associates designed the structure. According to the San Francisco Planning Dept., which reviewed the project last May, “While the project would be taller than most buildings in the adjacent historic district at 13 stories in height, the project is not anticipated to overwhelm adjacent district contributors, which are monumental in scale and physically substantial in appearance and design.”
