ORANGE, CA—Orange Housing Development Corp. and C&C Development have completed construction on the Lemon Grove Apartments, a new workforce-housing community developed on a 3.5-acre former industrial site here. The project at 1148 N. Lemon St. features 82 apartments with rents affordable to working families with household incomes ranging from 30% to 60% of the area median income, starting at $537 a month for a family of four.

Lemon Grove consists of four three-story apartment buildings that encompass 24 two-bedroom and 58 three-bedroom apartments designed to serve large families. The community was developed on the site of a 1965 industrial facility that was demolished for the new residential project and is adjacent to another workforce-housing property, Citrus Grove, a 57-unit apartment project also built on an industrial site by Orange Housing and C&C Development in 2010.

Workforce-housing projects are in high demand, yet very little of them are being built in this part of Southern California due to the high cost of land and labor; luxury projects pencil better for developers. Redevelopment projects like these are more prevalent for those reasons.

The partnership between Orange Housing and C&C has built and continues to own 557 unites of workforce housing in the city of Orange; the joint venture is the largest provider and manager of affordable housing in the city. Rick Otto, city manager for the City of Orange, said in a prepared statement, “The Lemon Grove Apartments property is the third new workforce rental project to be developed in Orange by this unique partnership.”

By redeveloping underutilized commercial and industrial uses into multifamily development, Orange Housing and C&C have advanced the city's Housing Element, according to city officials. Redevelopment of industrial and other non-residential sites is a key provision in the city's Housing Element, which states that urbanized areas being created by growing employment opportunities have “produced projects that redevelop commercial and industrial uses to integrate both residential and commercial uses at higher densities than seen previously.”

Council Member Mike Alvarez said in the statement, “Since our city is nearly built out, we must be very creative in finding viable sites to provide a diversity of housing for our residents.” He added that Lemon Grove and Citrus Grove are great examples of the type of creative thinking needed to provide the type of housing needed in Orange.

Lemon Grove is designed to achieve, at a minimum, a LEED-Silver certification and exceeds California Title 24 CalGreen energy-efficiency standards. It utilizes such sustainable building methods as “low-E” windows, grass bio swales, filtera units, water-saving plumbing fixtures and formaldehyde-free insulation. For optimal water conservation, the project incorporates state-of-the-art irrigation systems and is landscaped with low-maintenance, drought-resistant plants throughout including fruit trees and shrubs to provide aesthetic value and shade and to aid in the retention of water prior to runoff.

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Converted Site Gets Workforce Housing

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