West Development Ventures plans new projects in Sacramento, Rosemont

Affordable housing developer West Development Ventures has filed early applications for two new projects, including one in a robust area for new development in Sacramento.

The Mathios Apartments would be on Folsom Boulevard west of where it meets Bradshaw Road in the Rosemont area of Sacramento County, while the other project, so far unnamed, would be close to where Folsom Boulevard meets Elvas Avenue in Sacramento.

“Without question, we have huge waiting lists on our properties in the suburbs,” said Mike Kelley, a partner at Sacramento-based West Development. “I’m sure the demand is even more in the urban core.”

At 6801 Elvas Ave., the Sacramento affordable project would replace a warehouse on the site now with a five-story building of about 120 units, Kelley said. Purely an apartment building, that project would have units of one, two and three bedrooms — big enough for families, he said.

Though it’s near a light-rail line and doesn’t require parking, he said, that project will have about 100 stalls, he said.

Kelley said it’s his company’s first urban-style project in the city of Sacramento itself, though the company is active on other similar affordable projects in the Bay Area. The Sacramento project will cost an estimated $70.2 million, or about $585,000 a door, he said.

In Rosemont, Mathios will have 56 units in two three-story buildings, also ranging from one to three bedrooms and entirely affordable. Square footages will range from about 600 to about 1,000 square feet, and a site plan shows a playground/tot lot outside one of the buildings and 73 parking stalls.

Estimated cost for that project is about $25.2 million, or $450,000 a door, Kelley said.

“It speaks only to our experience, but here in Sacramento, our costs have leveled out,” he said, adding Lyla, an affordable project his company is doing in Elk Grove, is currently on budget. “Our biggest challenge is interest rates.”

Lining up financing for both projects should take up much of 2024, he said, putting the earliest possible start of construction in January 2025.

West Development, with The Pacific Cos. as general contractor, will start in early 2024 on The Garden at Bella Breeze, a 189-unit affordable project in Lincoln, he added.