IRVINE : Irvine Co. May Build Low-Income Units

In an effort to provide more housing for low-income residents, the Irvine Co. on Monday announced a deal with a nonprofit company to build and manage a 384-unit apartment complex in the nearly completed Westpark subdivision.

Under the partnership with the Bridge Housing Corp. of San Francisco, up to 150 of the apartments will be rented to families earning less than 60% of the county’s median income, Irvine Co. spokesman Michael Stockstill said. For a family of four, the maximum allowable income would be about $29,460.

The apartment complex is planned at Harvard Avenue and San Leon, across from City Hall.

Using a nonprofit company will help in obtaining dwindling government bonds for the project, said Michael Le Blanc, a vice president with the Irvine Co.’s residential building wing.

“They go to the head of the line, in front of for-profit developers,” Le Blanc said.

The apartments would be used to satisfy the Irvine Co.’s obligation to build affordable units in exchange for permission to build 925 more homes in Westpark, at Harvard Avenue and Main Street, Le Blanc said. That proposal is before the Planning Commission and will require City Council approval.

If the partnership with Bridge succeeds, Stockstill said, the company might propose a similar joint venture in the recently approved Westpark II subdivision just north of the original Westpark.

Bridge has built more than 3,500 units in the Bay Area, of which more than 40% are priced below market rate.