More than 100 townhomes will replace an office park in Santa Clara, clearing the way for home ownership and affordable housing near Santa Clara University.
The Santa Clara City Council unanimously approved a 142-townhome development last month, located at 1400 Coleman Ave. The 4-story project, proposed by San Francisco-based City Ventures, includes 29 affordable homes and 234 parking spaces, along with nearly half an acre of community recreational space, a barbecue area, garden and dog run.
The 3.8-acre, all-electric development will replace Airport Park Garden Office Suites, where businesses such as Safety Training Seminars rent space near San Jose Mineta International Airport and Santa Clara University. The development team told San José Spotlight the property’s private owner notified the businesses about the redevelopment last year. Construction of the for-sale homes is expected to start after City Ventures finalizes architectural drawings in about a year.
District 3 Councilmember Karen Hardy said the development helps connect the once primarily industrial area to the rest of the suburban city, especially with the anticipated South Bay BART expansion nearby. Hardy worked on the area when she sat on the city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, and said the development fits with the Santa Clara Station Area Focus Area, which supports future redevelopment growth in the area.
“We’ve tried to make it more friendly for housing, for walking and for bicycling, which is what you need for a neighborhood (and) what’s starting to be built out there,” she told San José Spotlight.
The project, which began in 2022 and has gone through several iterations, is personal to City Ventures Vice President Pamela Nieting. Nieting graduated from Santa Clara University with a degree in civil engineering and said it feels good to show her former professors her work and give back to the community.
She said the project may not be as big as Gateway Crossings, a 1,565-home development across the street, but it provides an accessible route to home ownership. She added City Ventures went above the city’s 15% affordable housing requirement to benefit residents.
The homes will be available for residents who classify as very low income, low income and moderate income per state guidelines, which ranges from $70,350 to $164,000 a year for one person in Santa Clara County.
“What a blessing it was to be able to look back… and say, ‘Oh, my Lord. I was equipped with an engineering degree to literally be in the right place at the right time, to be able to develop this,'” Nieting told San José Spotlight.
The project will add to Santa Clara’s state-mandated housing plan that requires the city to build at least 11,632 homes by 2031, of which 6,054 must be affordable.
It received six letters of support and one opposed after the development team hosted two community outreach meetings. The majority of support came from the Santa Clara University community, including Sukhmander Singh, department chair of civil, environmental and sustainable engineering.
Singh said housing affordability in the area is a serious barrier for recruiting and keeping quality staff, and often results in long commutes.
“Developments like this one are critical to creating pathways to homeownership for educators and other local professionals,” he said in his letter. “The project is thoughtfully planned and aligns with the city’s vision for the neighborhood.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.
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