Renovated Maydestone Apartments to open in downtown Sacramento
By Tony Bizjak The Sacramento Bee
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
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Boarded up eight years ago after a fire, the near-century-old Maydestone Apartments across from Memorial Auditorium reopen this week with $7 million in fixes and modern touches, but with their historic feel intact.
Sacramento redevelopment officials, who backed most of the project at 15th and J streets with loans, call Wednesday's reopening a success in tough times.
The spruced-up building brings a blighted dead zone back to life in the heart of a downtown cultural center, they say, and offers moderately priced housing among trendy offices, restaurants and bars.
Maydestone – a notable redevelopment project – also sits just down the block from the loft occupied by Gov. Jerry Brown, whose administration is pitted against cities in a court battle over its plans to shift hundreds of millions of dollars from redevelopment agencies to the state budget.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for any (elected official) who might live in close proximity to walk by and take a look," said La Shelle Dozier, executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA). "If not for redevelopment, this project would not happen."
Apartments in the Spanish Mission style building have tile floors and lots of decorative dark woodwork. They also include a notable niche offering – 30 of its 32 units have Murphy beds that roll out of the wall.
That's almost a necessity in the smaller units, which are just 300 square feet. Larger units are 700 square feet. In some cases, the Murphy beds slide out from under the units' elevated bathroom or kitchen floors.
"This is very urban," developer Bay Miry said. "Not for people used to McMansions."
When the building closed in 2003, rents started at $450 for a studio and averaged $515 for a one-bedroom, according to one published report.
Rents now range from $700 for studios to $1,500 for larger fourth-floor corner apartments with bay windows.
One former resident, who was peering in the windows Monday morning as crews did finish work, said he paid a reduced rate of $275 a month for his studio in the back.
Chris Gauthier, who now lives "here and there," said the building had fallen into disrepair under unconcerned management by the time a small fire led to its closure.
Miry, an executive with D&S Development, let Gauthier in Monday for a brief sneak peak.
"I love it," Gauthier said of the remodel. But, "I wouldn't be able to afford it."
Redevelopment officials nevertheless said they believe the rent levels are appropriate for the location. The project is aimed at people with income levels between $30,000 and $60,000 a year, developer Miry said.
He and SHRA officials said the smaller units could be rented by restaurant workers in the neighborhood, and the larger units by the area's young professionals.
Sacramento Housing Alliance officials contend the city and redevelopment agency are not providing enough housing for very low income people in the central city. But housing alliance Executive Director Bob Erlenbusch said he considers the Maydestone rents acceptable for that location.
"We also need workforce-development housing," he said. "The Maydestone approaches that level."
Developer Miry said his company has received 25 applications from potential renters in the first week the building has sought tenants.
The Maydestone redevelopment deal came after Miry's company bought the building and approached SHRA for help in a down market getting it fixed and reopened.
SHRA officials agreed to issue Miry's company $6.1 million in loans. The company invested $900,000 of its own money, Miry said. As long as the developer maintains rent levels for people with low to moderate incomes, $2.6 million of those loans will be forgiven, redevelopment officials said.
Dozier of SHRA said her agency offered the forgivable loan because of the extra construction costs required to maintain the historic integrity of the building while bringing it to modern standards with amenities that include disabled accessible entrance and elevator.
Without agency help, the building would have been boarded and blighted indefinitely, Dozier said.
The project represents another step in marking Miry's D&S Development as a key player in mid- and upper-range housing and other development downtown. The company previously privately built lofts at 14th and R streets and redid the Sterling Hotel.
It has a much bigger deal in the works, though. The company has cobbled together millions in private funding and $13 million in redevelopment agency loans to build a major housing and retail complex on and behind the blighted 700 block of K Street. Miry said his company expects to start work in six months.
"If they can replicate what they did at the Maydestone," Dozier said, "they are going to knock that out of the park."
The spruced-up building brings a blighted dead zone back to life in the heart of a downtown cultural center, they say, and offers moderately priced housing among trendy offices, restaurants and bars.
Maydestone – a notable redevelopment project – also sits just down the block from the loft occupied by Gov. Jerry Brown, whose administration is pitted against cities in a court battle over its plans to shift hundreds of millions of dollars from redevelopment agencies to the state budget.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for any (elected official) who might live in close proximity to walk by and take a look," said La Shelle Dozier, executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA). "If not for redevelopment, this project would not happen."
Apartments in the Spanish Mission style building have tile floors and lots of decorative dark woodwork. They also include a notable niche offering – 30 of its 32 units have Murphy beds that roll out of the wall.
That's almost a necessity in the smaller units, which are just 300 square feet. Larger units are 700 square feet. In some cases, the Murphy beds slide out from under the units' elevated bathroom or kitchen floors.
"This is very urban," developer Bay Miry said. "Not for people used to McMansions."
When the building closed in 2003, rents started at $450 for a studio and averaged $515 for a one-bedroom, according to one published report.
Rents now range from $700 for studios to $1,500 for larger fourth-floor corner apartments with bay windows.
One former resident, who was peering in the windows Monday morning as crews did finish work, said he paid a reduced rate of $275 a month for his studio in the back.
Chris Gauthier, who now lives "here and there," said the building had fallen into disrepair under unconcerned management by the time a small fire led to its closure.
Miry, an executive with D&S Development, let Gauthier in Monday for a brief sneak peak.
"I love it," Gauthier said of the remodel. But, "I wouldn't be able to afford it."
Redevelopment officials nevertheless said they believe the rent levels are appropriate for the location. The project is aimed at people with income levels between $30,000 and $60,000 a year, developer Miry said.
He and SHRA officials said the smaller units could be rented by restaurant workers in the neighborhood, and the larger units by the area's young professionals.
Sacramento Housing Alliance officials contend the city and redevelopment agency are not providing enough housing for very low income people in the central city. But housing alliance Executive Director Bob Erlenbusch said he considers the Maydestone rents acceptable for that location.
"We also need workforce-development housing," he said. "The Maydestone approaches that level."
Developer Miry said his company has received 25 applications from potential renters in the first week the building has sought tenants.
The Maydestone redevelopment deal came after Miry's company bought the building and approached SHRA for help in a down market getting it fixed and reopened.
SHRA officials agreed to issue Miry's company $6.1 million in loans. The company invested $900,000 of its own money, Miry said. As long as the developer maintains rent levels for people with low to moderate incomes, $2.6 million of those loans will be forgiven, redevelopment officials said.
Dozier of SHRA said her agency offered the forgivable loan because of the extra construction costs required to maintain the historic integrity of the building while bringing it to modern standards with amenities that include disabled accessible entrance and elevator.
Without agency help, the building would have been boarded and blighted indefinitely, Dozier said.
The project represents another step in marking Miry's D&S Development as a key player in mid- and upper-range housing and other development downtown. The company previously privately built lofts at 14th and R streets and redid the Sterling Hotel.
It has a much bigger deal in the works, though. The company has cobbled together millions in private funding and $13 million in redevelopment agency loans to build a major housing and retail complex on and behind the blighted 700 block of K Street. Miry said his company expects to start work in six months.
"If they can replicate what they did at the Maydestone," Dozier said, "they are going to knock that out of the park."
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