Seniors affordable rental housing trend starting to gain traction
LONDON: The affordable seniors rental housing trend is now starting to gain significant traction.
Another developer Tishman Speyer broke ground Monday on a senior building that launches the initial phase of the “Santa Monica Collection” development, which in total will add 677 housing units at eight Downtown sites.
The fully entitled sites on 3.1 acres were bought by the New York-based real estate investor a year ago from WSC, Santa Monica’s biggest residential developer, for a reported $150 million.
Phase one of the project encompasses four buildings with 340 rental units, 83 of them affordable, and approximately 18,700 square feet of street-level retail.
Of the affordable units, 56 will be housed at a 100 percent affordable senior building at 711 Colorado Avenue slated to be completed late next year.
The other three rental buildings in phase one will be completed throughout 2025 at sites at 1430 Lincoln Boulevard, 1650 Lincoln Boulevard and 501 Broadway.
The Santa Monica Collection, said Tishman Speyer Senior Managing Director Paul DeMartini, “will deliver a critical mass of quality new housing options for individuals and families across a wide spectrum of income levels.”
“Downtown Santa Monica’s proximity to beautiful beaches and mountains, along with its vibrant local lifestyle, make it one of the region’s most attractive places to live and work,” DeMartini said.
Tishman Speyer is partnering with WISE & Healthy Aging to support the residents of the all-affordable senior living building that broke ground on Monday.
The Santa Monica-based non-profit agency will be provided a two-bedroom unit to create the first elder abuse shelter in Los Angeles, Tishman Speyer said.
The partnership will “support efforts to create more affordable and accessible senior housing that is so desperately needed in Santa Monica,” said Molly Davies, WISE’s president and CEO.
Mayor Gleam Davis, who joined in the groundbreaking ceremony, said “this type of collaboration between the preeminent local agency serving seniors and a developer is a model for all senior housing projects.”
“Building affordable housing for seniors allows our older residents to age in place with dignity and a higher quality of life,” Davis said.
“Because it is so walkable and has so many amenities close by, Downtown Santa Monica is the perfect place to build this type of housing.”
The second phase of the Santa Monica Collection development consists of another four buildings with 277 rental apartments, 12 percent of them affordable, and 12,760 square feet of retail.
Tishman Speyer expects construction on those buildings to begin in 2024 and be completed throughout 2026.
