Another apartment complex in Pasadena will be converted into middle-income housing.
A partnership between Waterford Property Company and the California Statewide Communities Development Authority has added a third apartment complex in the San Gabriel Valley city to its portfolio of “workforce housing” communities, the firms announced on Thursday.
“Workforce housing” increasingly refers to multifamily rental properties that receive some public support in exchange for keeping rents in what’s deemed to be an affordable range for middle-income households.
Waterford acquired the 105-unit THEO complex at 289 North El Molino Avenue for $67 million – about $638,000 per unit – using bonds issued by the state authority.
San Ramon-based developer SummerHill Communities sold the property. It bought the land for the complex in 2016 for $5 million and finished construction on the six-story development in May of last year.
As the new administrator of the complex, Waterford will immediately lower rents for new residents who make between 60 and 120 percent of the area’s median income – roughly $41,000 to $82,000 annually.
Monthly rents at the property average $3,562 now; the average is expected to drop by nearly 20 percent, to $2,860.
Waterford and the California Statewide Communities Development Authority previously teamed up in June to buy two other complexes in Pasadena for a total of $335 million.
The acquisitions are made as part of the state’s workforce housing project, which gives local government and private entities access to low-cost, tax-exempt project financing. In exchange, the private companies agree to lower rents for qualifying tenants.
With this purchase, Waterford and the state agency now own 10 apartment complexes with 2,750 units across Southern California — all of which were converted into workforce housing, Waterford said in its release.