SAN JOSE — A development of affordable homes is moving closer to reality in downtown San Jose and would rise a few blocks from a transit village that Google intends to build near the Diridon train station.
The proposed residential project would add 130 apartments to a site near the corner of Auzerais Avenue and Delmas Avenue near the interchange of Interstate 280 and State Route 87.
In a filing with San Jose city planners on Nov. 18, the backers of the project, whose principal developer is Hayward-based Eden Housing, sought a permit for construction of the new homes. The city filing also included new conceptual images for the planned project.
Of the 130 units in the planned Auzerais Apartments project, 64 would be offered to formerly homeless families and households, according to the proposal with the city.
This proposal arrives on the heels of the purchase in April of the development site by SJ Auzerais, an affiliate of Eden Housing.
The Eden Housing-controlled affiliate paid $12.5 million on April 5 for the 1-acre site, according to Santa Clara County property records.
On the same day, Housing Trust Silicon Valley provided $13.75 million in financing, county records show. The Housing Trust money was provided to help bankroll the purchase and for other expenses.
“The project is called SJ Auzerais Apartments and will be a sought-after location in downtown San Jose,” Housing Trust stated in a Facebook post.
The project is perched on the Delmas Avenue on-ramp to Highway 87, is just down the street from the interchange of Interstate 280 and Bird Avenue, and is within walking distance of a couple of light rail stops as well as Diridon Station itself.
And potentially, some of the residents in the 130-unit SJ Auzerais Apartments might wind up working in the transit-oriented community that Google has proposed near the train station and the SAP Center.
Google has proposed a mixed-use community of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, entertainment hubs, cultural centers, hotel facilities, and open spaces where the tech titan could employ 25,000 people on the western edges of downtown San Jose.
The Eden Housing development is being planned for several parcels with addresses of 425 and 429 Auzerais Ave. and 383 Delmas Ave., county assessment files show.
“Helping create affordable housing in an area poised for growth is a wonderful thing,” Housing Trust Silicon Valley said in the Facebook post regarding its involvement helping to fund the Auzerais Apartments project.