HEART makes $3.5M loan for land acquisition in North Fair Oaks neighborhood of Redwood City

 Largest loan to date for 67 units

HEART made its largest loan to date, $3,500,000, to Palo Alto Housing Corporation (PAH) to acquire a 0.59 acre parcel of land at 2821 EL Camino Real in North Fair Oaks. PAH plans to construct 67 units of affordable rental housing for low and very low-income families and homeless/at risk veterans. This is HEART’s first partnership with PAH, and its second investment in North Fair Oaks. HEART previously made a $700,000 loan for predevelopment costs to the Mental Health Association of San Mateo County for 16 units of housing for individuals with special needs.
“The Board of Supervisors invested in HEART, which provided the capacity to make this type and size of loan. This is exactly the kind of critical, high-impact lending that HEART was created to do,” said HEART Board Chair, Supervisor Don Horsley of San Mateo County.  The planned units, which will be built on a site currently occupied by Enterprise Rent a Car, will include 67 studio and one-bedroom apartments for households with incomes between 30%-60% of the Area Median Income (AMI). Twenty- seven units will be reserved for homeless or at risk veterans and an additional six units will house homeless/at risk individuals with mental illness.
“It was a pleasure working with PAH on this loan. We only had three weeks from start to closing but PAH, our Board and everyone on our team was committed to making it work.” said Armando Sanchez, HEART’s executive director.
PAH anticipates starting construction in early 2019, and lease up in late 2020.