San Diego Affordable Housing Targets Diverse Needs

2016 MFE Awards, Affordable Housing, Grand: Celadon at 9th & Broadway

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BRIDGE Housing Corp., founded in 1983, has long had a focus on developing and managing affordable housing. It opened its first affordable seniors property, Coleridge Park Homes, in 1989 and went on to larger-scale communities with a more-varied mix of incomes and populations, including public housing redevelopments and permanent supportive and special-needs housing.

Project Details

Location: San Diego
Developer: BRIDGE Housing Corp.
Architect: SVA Architects and Studio E
Builder: Turner Construction Co.
Opened: February 2015
Number of units: 250
Unit mix: “Living units” (375 square feet or smaller), studios, and one-bedrooms
Rents: $533 to $879

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With Celadon at 9th & Broadway, on a tight, former parking lot in downtown San Diego, BRIDGE constructed the 17-story, dramatically edgy apartment building for a mix of tenants who reflect the diversity of people living in a bustling, growing downtown yet sometimes can’t find affordable housing there.

Among the population targeted for the project are youths who are aging out of foster care, some of whom are at risk of becoming homeless. Also eligible are adults who fall under the state’s Mental Health Services Act and frail seniors who qualify for the federal Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE).

Eighty-eight of Celadon’s 250 units serve as supportive housing with the remaining ones available to low-income families and individuals earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income.

Affordable design nowadays means concern, too, about sustainability, amenities, and tenant enrichment. Examples here include a solar photovoltaic system, drought-tolerant landscaping, underground parking, and support services to keep residents engaged rather than isolated and prepare some for jobs to become self-sufficient.

Of special note is a five-story retail and office base and proximity to mass transit. A complex financing package used 9% and 4% tax credits, which permitted greater density within a single building to serve the wide range of populations, a first in California.

About the Author

Barbara Ballinger

Barbara Ballinger (www.barbaraballinger.com) is a freelance writer, author, and speaker who focuses on real estate, design, and family business. Her most recent book is The Kitchen Bible: Designing Your Perfect Culinary Space (Images Publishing, 2014). 

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