Lennar Urban helps fund next phase of Alice Griffith rebuild

SAN FRANCISCO, March 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Lennar Urban announced today that it has provided an additional $10 million toward the next phase of the rebuild of the Alice Griffith public housing site in San Francisco's Bayview Hunters Point. This funding will allow Phase 3 to move forward. The Phase includes 122 affordable and public housing apartments and is expected to be completed in Fall 2017.

The funding is part of an $85 million financing completed last week for the third of five phases of the redevelopment of Alice Griffith. Construction will begin shortly on the third phase, which will include 122 affordable and public housing apartments. No current residents are being displaced during construction, which is occurring on land adjacent to the existing site.

"We made a commitment long ago that the people of Alice Griffith would get new homes as part of this public-private partnership,'' said Kofi Bonner, President of Lennar Urban. "It's terrific to see that the fulfillment of that commitment is in sight.'' 

The rebuild of Alice Griffith is part of the larger Hunters Point Shipyard Phase 2 and Candlestick Point development plan, a public-private partnership between Lennar and San Francisco's Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII).

"Working with Lennar, we are creating a vibrant, inclusive mixed-income and mixed-use neighborhood,'' said OCII Executive Director Tiffany Bohee. ''Our public private partnership is vital to the Mayor's plan to create 30,000 housing units by 2020, with one third of the units permanently affordable."

Overall, the partnership at The San Francisco Shipyard and Candlestick Point will provide an estimated 12,000 new homes, an innovation office park, and a vibrant new urban retail and entertainment district on the site of the former Candlestick Park.    

The City was awarded a $30.5 million grant to transform the Alice Griffith public housing development, as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods Implementation (CNI) grant program, which supports locally driven strategies to address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public housing.

Construction, which is being led by development partner, McCormick Baron Salazar, currently is under way on Phases 1 and 2 of Alice Griffith, which includes 184 apartments for families. In partnership with OCII, Lennar contributed $26 million to those phases.

Once completed, the re-envisioned Alice Griffith will be a mixed-income, service-enriched community, developed according to the principles of the Mayor's HOPE SF Initiative. The initiative is a community-driven partnership with the Alice Griffith Tenants' Association. Alice Griffith's current 256 public housing units will be replaced with 256 new apartments. In addition, another 248 affordable apartments will be built as part of the initiative.  In addition to these replacement and new affordable housing units, the development will include 367 market rate units, 42 inclusionary units, and 237 workforce units serving households between 120% and 160% AMI to be developed or offered for development by Lennar.

Lennar's contribution is part of an $89 million community benefits package that includes affordable housing, job training, creation of public parks, and support for health care and educational facilities in the Bayview.

SOURCE Lennar Urban