When it comes to meeting what cap-and-trade dollars are supposed to go toward, few projects would seem to have a better case than the On Broadway Apartments affordable housing project bordering a transit line in Sacramento.

California’s Strategic Growth Council apparently agreed, granting the 140-unit affordable housing project $29 million in a new round of grants this week. The grant came through the council’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program.

“The AHSC award gets us considerably closer to having all the necessary funds to start construction,” a spokesperson for EAH Housing stated in an email. “We are now anticipating a Q1 2023 construction start date.”

In addition to money toward developing the five-story project at 1901 Broadway, the funding will also boost the “transit” side of what’s also a transit-oriented development.

According to the council, $10 million of the award will help pay for buying two rail cars for a planned expansion of the Altamont Corridor Express commuter rail into Midtown Sacramento. A rail line ACE is planning to use runs just west of On Broadway’s site.

A portion of the award would also fund bike and pedestrian improvements on 34th Street and Second Avenue in Sacramento, according to the council.

On Broadway’s total project cost is estimated at around $70 million. EAH Housing, based in San Rafael, acquired the 1.25-acre project site in 2020 for $5.6 million.

Units at On Broadway will range from studios to three bedrooms, and have rents corresponding to incomes that are 30% to 80% of the area median income. The project will also have a 3,500-square-foot commercial space on the ground floor facing Broadway.

Existing buildings on the site, formerly offices for the Catholic diocese, will be demolished for the project. Those buildings haven’t been occupied in over a decade.

EAH Housing received the most AHSC funding for a local project in the round of SGC awards announced this week, which totaled $808 million. A 60-unit housing project in South Lake Tahoe received $17.3 million.

A phase of the Mirasol Village mixed-income project in Sacramento’s River District requested $29.55 million but did not receive a recommendation for approval. Read More