Pomona Helps Solve School’s Housing Crisis

What is being called “an outstanding example of a cooperative town-and-gown relationship between a university and neighboring municipal government” is enabling a new type of on-campus housing to be built at Cal Poly Pomona by next fall.

Known as University Village, the $3.4-million project, which will house 400 people, is being built by Mark A. Temple Construction of Palm Springs with no federal or state funds but by tax-exempt, multifamily housing revenue bonds issued by the city of Pomona.

A nonprofit auxiliary organization of the university, Cal Poly Kellogg Unit Foundation Inc., is responsible for administering repayment of the bonds, and First Interstate Bank’s Pomona office is supplying a letter of credit. The trustee is Seattle First National Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America.

Satellite Pattern

Designed by architects Perez & Hurtado and designer Frank Gonzales & Associates, both of Orange, the project will consist of 12 two-story buildings with eight units in each, and a single-story building of four units in a satellite pattern around a central quad on 8.3 acres.

Each unit will have two bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen and a dining room in about 900 square feet of space. All units will be furnished and be rented to individuals for $160 a month plus utilities or $640 a month for each four-person unit.

The project is being termed “the first of its kind (in financing construction) in the California State University” system and “may be the first for any college or university in the country.”