Developer Skid Row Housing Trust and the City of Long Beach are teaming up on plans to bring affordable housing and mobility improvements to the blocks surrounding the A Line's Anaheim Street Station.
Aerial view of the Union Apartments looking northCity Fabrick
The Downtown-based developer is now pursuing plans for a project called Union, which would rise from an empty 1.1-acre lot it owns at the intersection of 14th Street and Long Beach Boulevard. Plans call for the construction of a low-rise building containing 160 one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings above 4,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The new apartments would be reserved as affordable housing at the low-, very low-, and extremely low-income levels.
According to a social media post, City Fabrick is designing the proposed apartment complex, which is depicted in renderings as a contemporary seven-story complex bisected by a central courtyard opening to 14th Street. Images also show that the complex would include a series of rooftop decks.
Aerial view of the Union Apartments looking northCity Fabrick
Under an agreement approved last month by the Long Beach City Council, the City and Skid Row Housing will jointly apply for up to the State of California's Department of Housing and Community Development for up to $30 million in funding for the project through the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Community Program. Should the application for funding be approved, the State would issued $20 million in construction financing for Union, as well as $10 million for transportation and infrastructure projects in the surrounding community. The proposed mobility projects include:
- the installation of a new bike route connecting Pacific Coast Highway with Ocean Boulevard;
- new landscaping and pedestrian improvements on 14th Street that would comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act;
- upgrades to a transit stop at 14th and Long Beach Boulevard;
- the purchase of three electric buses; and
- a transit pass program.
View of the Union Apartments looking north from 14th StreetCity Fabrick
The potential state funding would supplement $3 million already allocated to the project by the City of Long Beach. The estimated total cost of Union is $91.2 million, according to a staff report.
Entitlements for the project are expected to be approved in June.
The proposed apartment complex would rise directly across 14th Street from an empty lot where Habitat for Humanity is planning 36 townhome-style condominiums, and a one block east of a 10-home development now being built by the non-profit.
View of the Union Apartments looking southwest from Long Beach BoulevardCity Fabrick
Union's developer, Skid Row Housing, is best known for its supportive housing projects in the Downtown area.
- Long Beach (Urbanize LA)
Looking for affordable housing? Visit lahousing.lacity.org/aahr
