Uptown Community Partners Selected for Exclusive Negotiating Agreement for 6+ Acres in Whittier, CA

Team of Experts Selected to Transform Whittier's Uptown District

WHITTIER, Calif., June 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The members of Uptown Community Partners—consisting of City Ventures, Thomas Safran & Associates, Gentefy, and SVA Architects—are celebrating their team's selection to enter into an Exclusive Negotiating Agreement (ENA) with the City of Whittier, CA. The agreement will cover eight (8) City-owned properties totaling 6.4 acres north of Philadelphia Street and west of Bright Avenue, including the former Alpha Beta grocery store property. The ENA will be negotiated over a six-month period. Uptown Community Partners' plan will transform the sites into much-needed housing, open space, retail, and replacement parking designed to facilitate human connection and foster a thriving community. 

Uptown Community Partners' plan for the redeveloped sites in Whittier, CA features 344 new market-rate and affordable homes, including 229 for-sale units and 115 low- and very low-income rental apartments. These multi-family communities will range from three (3) to five (5) stories above ground. The plan also includes 5,000 square feet of commercial development and 251 parking stalls. Enhancements at the pedestrian scale will allow residents and visitors to experience the food, art, and nature woven into the community fabric.

Building the much-lauded, for-sale housing in Uptown Whittier will be City Ventures. City Ventures is a rapidly growing California homebuilder which repositions underutilized real estate into residential housing. It focuses on the construction of townhomes, condominiums, lofts, mixed-use, live-work and single-family detached homes in the Southern and Northern California coastal urban infill neighborhoods. City Ventures is based in San Francisco and Irvine, and currently owns and controls over 8,000 lots in California. 

Ryan Aeh, Senior Vice President for City Ventures, states, "City Ventures has a long track record of successful public/private partnerships with local cities, and we're thrilled the City of Whittier has selected us to help revitalize Uptown Whittier and provide much needed new for-sale housing."

For more information about City Ventures, visit www.cityventures.com.

Leading Whittier's affordable housing component is Thomas Safran & Associates. Thomas Safran & Associates has developed over 6,000 units of luxury, affordable, and mixed-use rental housing in Southern California. For over 40 years, the company has specialized in developing and managing high-quality properties, many of which have won prestigious awards. Thomas Safran & Associates is committed to providing superior design, maintaining its properties to the highest standards, and enriching the lives of its residents. 

Jordan Pynes, President of Thomas Safran & Associates, says, "TSA currently owns and operates two affordable housing communities in Whittier. We are delighted to continue this important work with the City and community to provide much needed affordable housing in Whittier." 

For more information about Thomas Safran & Associates, visit www.tsahousing.com. 

Uptown Square will consist of seven permanent micro-kitchens for local businesses, a performance stage, a large courtyard, and substantial programming. Similar to Gentefy's highly successful BLVD MRKT development in Montebello, three of the seven restaurants will be allocated for business incubation purposes, and will house underrepresented minorities from the local community who face socio-economic barriers that prevent them from opening a restaurant. Gentefy's mission is to act as a catalyst for community-driven economic development. The company creates products and services that increase entrepreneurial activity and foster economic empowerment within marginalized Hispanic communities.

For more information about Gentefy, visit www.linkedin.com/company/gentefy/about/. 

Overseeing all aspects of the conceptual design is SVA Architects. Founded in 2003, SVA Architects has become one of the Country's most innovative and respected design and planning organizations. The award-winning firm specializes in urban planning, architecture, and interior design of public, private, and mixed-use projects. Among the firm's portfolio are civic, educational, residential, commercial and mixed-use developments. SVA Architects values institutional and public environments as the foundation of a community and the backdrop against which we live, learn, work, worship, and play. The company is headquartered in Santa Ana with offices in Oakland, San Diego, Davis, and Honolulu. 

Ernesto M. Vasquez, FAIA, CEO of SVA Architects, says, "One of the exciting opportunities for the Whittier development—with multiple sites spread throughout the area—is the mission to create intentional spaces between buildings. We can create pedestrian corridors and cohesion from the street-level. Wide sidewalks will be activated with public art, landscaping, and gathering spaces, allowing Uptown to become a place of human connection where community is built. We envision the Uptown district becoming the jewel of Whittier."

For more information about SVA Architects, visit www.sva-architects.com. 

Media Contact: Beth Binger
BCI
Mobile: (619) 987-6658
[email protected]

SOURCE Uptown Community Partners