City, Developer Strike Deal on North Park Housing Development
Redevelopment Deal to Provide Desperately-Needed Affordable and Market-Rate Workforce Housing

SAN DIEGO – The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agency approved a development agreement for a $62 million mixed-use project in the community of North Park, which will further revitalization and investment in this historic San Diego neighborhood and add to San Diego’s market-rate and affordable housing supply.

The development, to be named “La Boheme,” will be built by Western Pacific Housing and is part of a larger redevelopment plan to revitalize one of San Diego’s oldest and most diverse neighborhoods.   The development will include 224 for-sale condominiums (45 of which will be affordable), approximately 15,800 square feet of ground level commercial space and a minimum of 371 parking spaces.  The development, designed in a Spanish-Mediterranean style, will include seven different floor plans ranging in size from 900 to 1,100 square feet. 

"As the first project to get approved in any of the city's Pilot Villages, La Boheme stands as a great example of urban redevelopment," said Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins. "This project brings a mixture of market-rate and affordable housing to downtown North Park and contributes to the ongoing revitalization of this community."

La Boheme will be built on a 2.06 acre site bounded by 30^th Street to the west, Lincoln Avenue to the north and Ohio Street to the east.  The development is anticipated to be built by fall of 2006.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to work with the City to build a mixed-use development in a vibrant community such as North Park,” said Gail Nakamura, vice president of marketing for Western Pacific Housing.  “When completed, La Boheme will provide more housing options for San Diegans that want to live in this dynamic neighborhood.”

The City’s Redevelopment Agency, through the Community and Economic Development Department, will commit at total of $3 million to the development.  Most of the funding, $2.1 million, is earmarked as a subsidy for the affordable housing units.  The remaining $900,000 will fund public improvements for the project.  The development is anticipated to generate $600,000 in new gross tax increment each year, which will pay for the Redevelopment Agency’s subsidy over a number of years and eventually will be available to fund other revitalization efforts in the community.

This latest project adds to the growing list of redevelopment and revitalization efforts transforming North Park.   The Redevelopment Agency recently celebrated the groundbreaking of the Renaissance at North Park mixed-use development at the corner of El Cajon Boulevard and 30^th Street, and is also working with a developer to renovate the historic North Park Theatre.

“We have many revitalization efforts underway in North Park,” said Hank Cunningham, assistant executive director of the City’s Redevelopment Agency and director of the City’s Community and Economic Development Department.  “We’re managing redevelopment projects, streetscape improvements, storefront improvement projects and supporting mixed-use developments that provide more affordable and market-rate housing.  There is definitely a renewal underway in North Park and projects like this, which include desperately-needed housing, are enhancing the community.”

For more information on the availability of for-sale housing, affordable housing and leasing information for commercial space for this new development, contact Western Pacific Housing at (800) 330-0974.

For more information about available affordable housing units citywide, contact the San Diego Housing Commission at (619) 231-9400 or visit www.sdhc.net.

For more information about the North Park Redevelopment Project Area, contact Tom Romstad, Redevelopment Project Manager at (619) 533-5284 or tromstad@sandiego.gov, or contact the Redevelopment Agency, Community and Economic Development Department at (619) 533-4233 or visit the City’s web site at www.sandiego.gov/ced.

[Editors:  Renderings in electronic format available upon request]

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The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agencyeliminates blight from designated areas, as well as achieves the goals of development, reconstruction and rehabilitation of residential, commercial, industrial, and retail districts.  Redevelopment is one of the most effective ways to breathe new life into deteriorated areas plagued by social, physical, environmental or economic conditions that act as a barrier to new investment by private enterprise.  The City of San Diego Redevelopment Agencyconsists of three divisions: the City Redevelopment Division (which provides overall agency management and is housed in the City of San Diego Communityand Economic Development Department), the Centre City Development Corporation and the Southeastern Economic Development Corporation.