Quick Take
After sitting dormant for several years, a vacant lot on the corner of 41st Avenue and Soquel Drive has been sold to an affordable-housing developer, which plans to build a new two-tower apartment complex with 289 units. The site had once been eyed for a car dealership.
A vacant lot on the corner of Soquel Drive and 41st Avenue is poised to become the site of the latest large-scale housing development in Santa Cruz County.
The new development will feature 289 units of affordable housing, from studio apartments to three-bedroom units, within two five-story towers. The site will include 240 parking spaces and 90 bicycle spaces.
The company behind the project, Pacific West Communities, already has a presence in Santa Cruz County as developer of the Ocean Street Apartments. Pacific West will partner with Linc Housing, a Southern California-based affordable housing nonprofit, on the project. The 41st Avenue property was recently sold for $10.3 million by Don Groppetti of the Groppetti Automotive Family.
Groppetti had originally wanted to move his Santa Cruz Nissan dealership to the site, but decided to sell the property instead. The lot has remained empty for years. Reuben Halick of Cushman & Wakefield, who facilitated the sale, said that his client had at first wanted to sell to another auto dealership. But with little interest shown from dealerships, the property — just across the street from the big shopping center featuring Safeway, Best Buy and Home Depot — was reconceived as a potential spot for affordable housing.
Of the project’s 289 units, 118 will be studio apartments, with 103 one-bedroom units (plus another 13 larger one-bedrooms), 22 two-bedroom units and 33 three-bedroom apartments. Unit sizes will range from 432 square feet to 1,140 square feet.
The units will be deemed “affordable,” which means they will be available to tenants earning anywhere between 30 and 80% of the county’s median household income, which, as of 2022, was $104,409.
No timetable for construction has been announced.
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