SAN JOSE, CA—Located at 5568 Lexington Ave. on what was formerly the Hitachi Global Storage Technologies campus, Oak Grove Apartments is a $34 million development providing 134 units of permanently affordable housing to low-income families earning at or below 60% of the Santa Clara County area median income. The community is fully leased as of completion, according to ROEM Corporation . Oak Grove Apartments is part of a 295-acre master-planned community that will include condominiums, apartments, attached townhomes, many pocket parks and a large 10-acre park with a baseball field. ROEM Corporation executive vice president Alex Sanchez tells GlobeSt.com: “ROEM is pleased to have financed and built a total of 334 new permanently affordable homes in San Jose's growing Hitachi master-planned community. Oak Grove Apartments and its recently completed neighbor, 200-unit Charlotte Park Apartments, are within about a half-mile radius. As a result of their close proximity, both projects gained an efficiency of management during construction because their management teams, though separate, were able to share resources and learn from one another.” Oak Grove Apartments consists of a five-story apartment building wrapped around a multi-story 149-space parking garage. Amenities include a community room with kitchen, computer room, children's outdoor play area, gym, laundry facility and outdoor courtyard. Sanchez continues to tell GlobeSt.com: “San Jose is currently the third most expensive rental market in the country. At ROEM's home base in Silicon Valley, it takes an hourly wage of $54 (or more than $122,000 a year) to afford the median two-bedroom apartment rent of $2,825 a month. It makes the work we do here at ROEM all the more critical as we continue to focus on providing more affordable housing to the community, whether it is a stand-alone development or part of a master-planned community like Oak Grove Apartments.” (Wage statistics provided by Silicon Valley At Home website, Real Facts/Santa Clara County.) Oak Grove Apartments development is being financed through 4% low income housing tax credits and tax-exempt bond financing. Citi Community Capital provided a permanent loan of approximately $17.8 million. Funding was also provided by Alliant Capital Ltd . and Pacific Housing is a partner on the project. The architect is Architects Orange and the general contractor is ROEM Builders Inc. “We are thrilled that Oak Grove Apartments will be home to families who may not otherwise be able to find suitable housing in San Jose,” said Jay Abeywardena , director, Citi Community Capital. “As the issue of affordable housing reaches critical levels, Citi continues to be committed to financing properties like this one.” ROEM is dedicated to building sustainable housing and is currently pursuing LEED Gold certification for Oak Grove Apartments. In addition to being constructed with sustainable building methods and materials, Oak Grove Apartments includes a number of green features to ensure the development's long-term energy-efficiency and sustainability. These include water-efficient fixtures, efficient landscape design using native species and zero turf, Energy Star appliances, high-efficiency windows, a solar PV system and Title-24 building energy-efficiency standards exceeded by 19%. Sanchez continues to tell GlobeSt.com: “Oak Grove Apartments is the 15th community in the last five years in which ROEM has pursued or achieved USGBC LEED certification. Building sustainable communities, where we can incorporate a solar PV system, shared landscaping with the market-rate community next door, and bike storage to reduce vehicular impact, matters to us as much as it does to the community. When we are able to integrate sustainable building methods and materials, it's not only helping to preserve our environment, but it's also a benefit to our residents in the savings they see in their monthly utilities.”

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City Planners Continue to Address Affordability Issues

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