LAKE FOREST, Calif. — Community HousingWorks (CHW) has opened Portola Senior Apartments, an affordable housing community in Lake Forest.
CHW’s first community in Orange County, Portola Senior Apartments is built as a standalone, four-story building with ground-floor retail space. The building features 58 one-bedroom apartments (including one designated for an on-site property manager) for singles or couples age 62 years and older who earn 50 percent of the area median income (AMI) or less, which is approximately $50,000 per year.
Over 750 people applied to live in Portola within three months of opening the interest list and the apartments were 100 percent occupied in less than 30 days after opening. Rent is $1,264 per month (after a utility allowance) and the waiting list currently has more than 1,000 applicants.
Funding sources for Portola Senior Apartments included Pacific Western Bank as the construction and permanent financing lender; Red Stone Equity Partners as the tax credit equity investor; SunRanch Capital Partners LLC as the soft lender; and tax-exempt bonds issued by California Municipal Finance Authority, California Tax Credit Allocation Committee and the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee.
The development team included general contractor Sunrise Pacific Construction Inc.; architectural firm AVRP Studios; civil engineering firms Lundstrom Engineering & Surveying and Hunsaker & Associates; and landscape architect Ridge Landscape Architects.