Developer Worried City Won't Hold Up Its End For Affordable Senior Housing Project

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A developer plans to build new homes for low-income seniors in Sacramento, but he's worried it won't happen.

The region is short some 52,000 affordable housing units according to a recent study.

The plan is for 90 low-income homes for seniors to be built at the old railyards site, but now the developer is claiming he could lose millions in the city doesn't hold of its side of the bargain

Developer Paul Petrovich has spent a decade getting a contaminated railyards property ready for retail, single-family homes and an affordable senior housing project.

"Eleven years ago we started and today we have the site completely clean," he said.

But now he says it's all in jeopardy if he doesn't get the 9 percent affordable housing tax credit the city promised to be first in line for.

"If the scoring was close as it relates to the bond financing that we would be put ahead of the other project," he said.

But the Sacramento Housing Redevelopment Agency also submitted the Sutterview Apartments in Midtown for consideration.

"They were built around 1970 so all of your internal systems, your plumbing, your heating need to be replaced. All of the interiors also need a total rehab," said spokeswoman LaShelle Dozier.

The problem is that Sutterview scored higher than the Curtis Park project, and only one will get the tax credit.

Petrovich says his project will create 90 new homes for low-income seniors.

"The other project is a fully occupied, habitable, existing unit by Sutter's Fort that's going to have an expensive remodel and not create any new units," he said.

The agency claims it's not choosing one over the other.

"We think they are both very worthy projects and in ideal world they both would be funded, so we are not putting one ahead of the other," she said.

But Petrovich says he can't afford to wait until the next round of funding. He has to open the units by December 2016. If not, he could default on $41 million in loans granted through Proposition 1C.

"The city controls whether I'm in default or not, so it's really SHRA who needs to step up and do the right thing as the council directed them," he said.

The Sacramento City Council will discuss the issue in a closed session before Thursday's meeting.