Shuttered Bennett Valley Senior Center in Santa Rosa demolished for new apartments

Sheets of shingle tiles, plywood and other debris were strewn across the ground Tuesday as crews this week began demolishing the long-vacant Bennett Valley Senior Center.

The city-owned facility closed in 2018 as Santa Rosa sought to bridge a multimillion-dollar budget gap.

It has remained boarded up and fenced off as city leaders and developers floated various plans for the site. In the interim, it has been defaced, and a fire last October gutted a portion of the structure.

Demolition work began Monday on the south side of the building and will continue through the end of the week.

The 1.9-acre site is being cleared to make way for 62 new affordable apartments at the corner of Bennett Valley Road and Rutledge Avenue in the city’s South Park neighborhood.

Oakland-based Freebird Development is expected to start work on the apartments by May.

“We are excited to be working with the South Park community to help restore this gateway to a proud presence and symbol of the neighborhood’s diversity and inclusivity,” Freebird founder Robin Zimbler said.

The nearly 100-year-old building opened in 1924 as a schoolhouse.

The city’s Recreation and Parks Department took over operations of the center in 2002.

The council in August 2018 voted to shut down the senior center to save about $54,000 in annual operations costs as the city faced a $14.2 million shortfall. The building was also in poor condition and in need of costly repairs and a consultant earlier that year recommended the city remove it from its portfolio of city-owned assets.

Visits to the center had also dropped since the opening of the new senior wing at the Finley Community Center in west Santa Rosa.

The closure was a blow to the seniors who ate meals and socialized at the center, preferring its activities and proximity.

The council considered opening the property as a homeless center with up to 60 beds as the city’s Sam Jones Hall underwent repairs but that plan failed to get funding from a county entity. The city also weighed using the site to house the safe parking program for people living in their vehicles.

The City Council in 2019 selected Freebird Development to transform the senior center site and three small adjacent lots into housing for low-income renters.

The developer’s initial proposal called for 46 income-restricted studios to three-bedroom units and it was chosen over another, similar proposal that called for just one-bedroom apartments.

Demolition of the building was supposed to start this summer but the fire sped up the work after damaging the integrity of the building.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. removed gas and electric infrastructure and environmental consultant EBA Engineering began removing hazardous material from the site in anticipation of the demolition.

Freebird will purchase the property from Santa Rosa for $1 later this spring once the developer closes on its construction financing.

The project received planning entitlements in April 2021 under a fast-tracked state-mandated process for affordable housing projects, geared to help alleviate the chronic housing shortage.

Known as South Park Commons, the development calls for 62 units with half set aside for formerly homeless people and the other half for low-income renters who make up to 50% of the area median income, Zimbler said.

The four-story complex will feature a mix of studio to three-bedroom apartments, a community room, a courtyard with grills and a children’s play area and green space.

Freebird is developing the project with Allied Housing, a Fremont homebuilder that specializes in supportive housing developments. Allied’s affiliate, Abode Services, will provide social services on site to all residents and intensive case management to residents who previously experienced homelessness, Zimbler said.

Jon White, Abode Services’ chief real estate officer, said the company’s recent work in Napa County, where they operate emergency shelter services and will provide supportive services at a permanent supportive and affordable housing project being developed by Allied, encouraged the company to expand to other parts of the North Bay “given the great need for families experiencing homelessness.”

Construction is expected to be completed in fall 2024 and the anticipated cost is $44 million, Zimbler said.

The project has received approximately $23 million in state funding, including a $15.6 million low-interest loan from the California Department of Housing and Community Development awarded last year and funding from the latest round of infill infrastructure grants announced Wednesday. The project also received low-income housing tax credits, funding from the Renewal Enterprise District Housing Fund and from the Santa Rosa Housing Authority, Zimbler said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paulina Pineda at 707-521-5268 or paulina.pineda@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @paulinapineda22.