Airo at South Bay
LOCATION
Hawthorne, CA
UNITS
230
ACQUIRED
2021
ASSET TYPE
Workforce housing
PROPERTY TYPE
Mid-rise
Community Spotlight
Airo at South Bay is a 230-unit community in Hawthorne, CA. The apartment community is a mixed-use development that has numerous amenities including a luxury pool deck, dedicated coworking spaces, state-of-the-art fitness center, social lounge and resident bar, and outdoor courtyards. Built in 2021, the five-story community sits on 2.5 acres and features a ground-floor restaurant and retail space. The apartment community features a solar array producing 250,000kWh per year and is LEED Gold certified. The solar array offsets roughly 195 tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to 445,000 miles driven by an average car per year.
The Challenge
The average single-family home in Hawthorne is over $900,000, but the average salary for essential workers is below $70,000. Utilizing California’s innovative public-private partnership structure designed to facilitate the creation of workforce housing, Standard Communities worked with numerous project partners to transition a market rate community to a workforce housing community.
The Game Plan
Standard Communities collaborated with Faring, CSCDA Community Improvement Authority, and the City of Hawthorne on the acquisition. Employing tax-exempt bond financing, CSCDA can acquire multifamily projects to provide much-needed housing for middle-income and essential workers throughout California. CSCDA, upon taking ownership of the property, works with Standard Communities as Project Administrator to immediately lower rents for new residents who qualify with incomes between 80% and 120% of the Area Median Income (AMI) – making the units affordable to middle-income families. The purchase price of this transaction was approximately $140 million. As part of the project capitalization, at closing the owners set aside $17.5 million in cash reserves to support the successful long-term operation and physical condition of the community.
The Outcome
With the creation of workforce housing at Airo at South Bay, middle-income families and essential workers such as first responders, hospital and healthcare staff, and teachers, can afford to live near their jobs in the communities they serve. Standard seeks to play a growing role in creating homes for middle-income families in California and around the country.
