BRIDGE Housing to Transform Historic Oakland, California Landmark into Senior Apartments

stjosephrendering St. Joseph’s Senior Apartments, a development by BRIDGE Housing Corporation, celebrated its groundbreaking in Oakland, California earlier this month and when construction is complete in June 2011, St. Joseph’s Senior Apartments will include 84 rental apartments for very-low-income seniors within the existing Main Building of the Oakland historic landmark. St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged entered service in 1913 under the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor; however the insurmountable costs of needed modernization forced the building to close in 1979.

“We are thrilled to be preserving this significant historic landmark while creating much-needed affordable housing on an infill site,” said Cynthia A. Parker, President and CEO of BRIDGE Housing.

The rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the Main Building will include seismic upgrades and will comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Properties. The apartments will be affordable to seniors age 62 and older with annual incomes ranging from $18,750 to $31,250 for a one-person household (30 to 50% of Area Median Income) and monthly rents are expected to range from $439 to $803, depending on income and apartment size.

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Financing for St. Joseph’s was provided by the City of Oakland, the Redevelopment Agency of the City of Oakland, U.S. Bank, Union Bank, Northern California Community Loan Fund/Lower San Antonio Community Development Fund, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, California Pollution Control Financing Authority, California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, California Department of Housing & Community Development, Oakland Housing Authority, Federal Home Loan Bank of California. The architect is Van Meter Williams Pollack and the general contractor is James E. Roberts-Obayashi Corporation.

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