San Francisco’s newest affordable housing development is the largest to be built in the city in the last 10 years.
Dubbed Five 88, the community features 198 one- and two-bedroom apartments for residents earning between 50% and 60% of the area median income.
Developers Related California and Chinatown Community Development Center celebrated the opening of the development in the Mission Bay neighborhood. The housing is adjacent to the new University of California San Francisco Medical Center.
“The need for affordable housing is immense in San Francisco, and I am so delighted we can collaborate with Related and the city and county of San Francisco to provide lower-income residents with safe, secure housing, accessible neighborhood commercial options, and good connections to public transportation,” said Norman Fong, executive director of Chinatown CDC, noting that 4,054 applications were submitted for the 198 units, underscoring the high demand for stable affordable housing.
Five 88 is the largest 100% affordable housing development built in San Francisco in the last decade, said Bill Witte, chairman and CEO of Related California.
The development team worked closely with the University of California and San Francisco’s Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII) to structure a development plan that enabled Family House, a local nonprofit, to build housing for families of seriously ill patients receiving treatment at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, on the eastern portion of the block, and Five 88 to be constructed on the western side.
The new development consists of 70 one-bedroom/one-bath units and 128 two-bedroom/one-bath units with 52 parking spaces. There are 200 secured bicycle parking spaces, including visitor bicycle parking, and one designated parking space for a car-sharing service. Other amenities include a 9,000-square-foot courtyard located on the podium level and a 14,000-square-foot courtyard on the ground level with seating and a barbecue area. There is a fitness center, a lounge, and common laundry facilities. Five 88 was designed to achieve a high GreenPoint Rating with the use of domestic solar hot water panels and drought-tolerant landscaping.
Officials did not disclose the total development cost. However, the project was financed with a combination of public and private resources, including a tax-exempt construction loan by Citibank, residual receipts notes from both Citi Community Capital and OCII, 4% tax credit low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) awarded by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, and a tax-exempt bond allocation from the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee. Wells Fargo was the LIHTC investor.
The development is designed by David Baker Architects.
