Investors Propose First Senior Housing in Manhattan Beach

Saying they want to give something back to Manhattan Beach, four private investors are moving ahead with plans to construct the city’s first senior citizen housing.

“The city has been good to us,” said William Riddle, one of the investors. “We have certainly made a fortune here in the real estate business.

“We are four local people who would just like to see some senior housing in the community, if we can do it without losing our fanny on it.”

The investors’ plans call for the construction of 48 one-bedroom apartments on the site of the former Manhattan Athletic Club for Men. Public hearings to determine the housing’s impact on the neighborhood are expected to begin late next month.

All Private Funding

The $3-million development would be built entirely with private money. If it is approved by city officials, construction could start by the end of the year, Riddle said.

The housing would be named after the late William A. Ross, a prominent local attorney who died in 1986. His widow, Donna, is one of the investors in the project, along with Jason Lane and Ivano Stamegna.

Riddle estimated that over the years, he and the other investors have been involved in dozens of development projects in Manhattan Beach and elsewhere in the South Bay.

If the housing is built, it would help deal with a problem that has grown over the years as the city has seen proposed developments surface, only to be abandoned or placed on indefinite hold.

City officials point to the high price of property in the beach community--as well as community resistance to housing built with government subsidies--as the major reasons why efforts to build senior housing have faltered.

Moreover, senior citizens’ advocates say it has often been difficult to sell residents on the need for such housing in the community, even though a city-sponsored survey in 1987 determined that there was an immediate need for at least 159 units in the city. The same survey estimated that nearly 200 additional units would be needed by the 1990s.

“It is a very slow process changing minds,” said Millie Anderson, president of the Manhattan Beach Senior Housing Foundation.

To facilitate the construction of senior citizen housing, council members last August passed an ordinance that places the housing in a separate zoning classification. Under the new classification, senior citizen housing can be built with lower minimum-square-footage requirements and fewer parking spaces than other apartment complexes.

“It allows a slightly smaller unit than normally permitted, and requires only one parking spot instead of two,” Councilman Bob Holmes said. “In reality, senior citizens are not two-or three-car families.”

Holmes said that if the Ross project does becomes a reality, the negative attitudes some residents have toward housing for seniors could vanish. “There is a little bit of fear of the unknown,” he said.

The proposed project will not be geared toward elderly people who must subsist on monthly, Social Security checks or a small pension. Although Riddle said that he and the other investors hope the units can be rented slightly below their fair market value, they envision seniors with significant financial resources occupying the apartments. Rents could range from $500 to $600 a month, he said.

The renters will probably be “the older person who really doesn’t want the bother of owning (his or her) own home anymore and fussing with plumbers and gardeners,” Riddle said.

Riddle said that he and the other investors originally purchased the property where the housing will be built about 18 years ago for $1.2 million. The group decided to close the athletic club last year because it was only marginally profitable and they had “grown weary of running it,” he said.

Originally, a handful of others also held a financial stake in the property, but they decided to cash out their investment when the club was closed, Riddle said.

Roughly an acre, the site is bounded by Valley Drive, Manhattan Beach Parkway, Sepulveda Boulevard and the intersection of Elm Avenue and Valley Drive.

Once the vacant athletic club is razed, plans call for construction of four two-story buildings. Each of the 48 apartments would have slightly more than 500 square feet of living space, and four of the units would be designed for disabled persons. There would be 58 parking spaces.

Plans also call for a 939-square-foot community center and a sculpture garden.