NATIONAL CITY – Wakeland Housing Development Corp, in partnership with the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council Family Housing Corporation, is building a $77.1 million affordable housing project in National City that will have 94 apartments.
Union Tower at 2312 F Ave. will include a four-story building and a seven-story building on a 1.7-acre site that is part of 22 acres owned by the Building Trades Council.
“They were looking to develop new housing on the property,” said David Hetherington, vice president of business development for Wakeland Housing.
The labor union is donating the site. Suffolk Construction is the general contractor. Practice, formerly GGA+, based in Pasadena, is the architect.
Hetherington said that the Building Trades Council owns 456 apartments that were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s on the 22 acres.
Of those, 32 apartments in two existing buildings will be demolished to make way for the new construction, according to Christian Ryan, project executive for Suffolk Construction.
At 10,500 square feet, the four-story building in Union Tower will have 36 apartments.
The seven-story building of 22,500 square feet will have 58 apartments in a design that steps up from street level so that it doesn’t look like a large monolithic structure, with only one section rising to seven stories.
There will be a series of roof terraces to reduce the mass of the building and create connections to the outdoors.
The labor union will lease the top floor and patio in the taller building.
The orientation of the two buildings at the northern and western edge of the property is meant to take advantage of prevailing breezes and provide natural ventilation to reduce the use of air conditioning, according to Practice.
Ryan said that Union Tower has a number of green building measures including high-efficiency heat pumps for heating and cooling, heat pump hot water heating, high-efficiency windows and is using locally produced materials in its construction.
VP, Business Development
Wakeland Housing and Development Corp.
Iconic Presence
Earmarked for tenants with annual incomes between 30% and 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI) the 94 apartments in the two buildings combined will include 45 one-bedroom apartments of 520 square feet, 25 two-bedroom apartments of 710 square feet, and 24 three-bedroom apartments of 960 square feet.
Of those, 24 will be set aside for homeless veterans, and 69 of the apartments will have what Ryan described as “adaptable features” such as special bathroom fixtures, grab bars, and kitchens designed to have light switches, electrical outlets and appliances within easy reach for tenants with disabilities.
Construction started in July and is scheduled to be finished in May 2025, according to Ryan.
A parking garage with 45 spaces, five electric vehicle charging stations and 16 bicycle parking spaces will take up most of the ground floor of one of the buildings.
“The building has a really nice outdoor deck above the parking garage,” Hetherington said. “In a way, it’s kind of a rooftop deck.”
The project will include offices for service providers, including the Veterans Administration and Interfaith Community Services, a computer lab, and a community kitchen with space for cooking classes.
VP, Business Development
Wakeland Housing and Development Corp.
As described by Practice, a guiding principle in the design of Union Tower was to “create an iconic presence celebrating the mission of the SDBCTC (San Diego Building and Construction Trades Council), the history of the exiting community” and project “a fresh and progressive vision of the future.”
Toward that end, plans call for a 40-foot by 30-foot mural on the side of the taller building celebrating labor unions.
An artist hasn’t been selected yet, but Hetherington said the idea for the mural is to depict two forearms and a fist to commemorate the struggles that labor unions have had in organizing workers.
“If you think about the unions, they’ve had many fights over the years,” Hetherington said.
Wakeland Housing and Development Corp.
Founded: 1998
CEO: Rebecca Louie
Headquarters: Downtown San Diego
Business: Affordable housing developer
Employees: 49
Website: www.wakelandhdc.com
Contact: 619-235-2296
Notable: Wakeland Housing has built 8,700 affordable apartments in 66 projects throughout California.
