Officials with the City’s Community Corporation, which develops “affordable housing” in Santa Monica, have said that it costs, on average, $450,000 per unit to buy and “rehab” existing apartment buildings.

At the Tuesday, October 14, City Council meeting, in response ti a question, a Related Companies of California executive estimated that, including the cost of the land, a unit in the proposed Civic Center Village development would cost $550,000 to to construct.

Ar the same meeting, resident Greg Brogger distributed data to the
Council based on the sale of apartment buildings in the city in the last year that showed that 166 units were purchased for less than $35 million or, on average, $209,000 for each apartment.

There are to be 163 “affordable” units in the Village.

Brogger went on to say, ”It’s extremely frustrating to hear Community Corp and Planning Department represent that the average cost of an apartment building unit after renovation is about $450,000. It means they’re either incompetent or ‘shading’ the truth. I don’t know which is more frightening.

“Given that (i) the reason for giving away $85 million of public land and allowing the Village its buffet of variances was to get the affordable housing units, and (ii) these units could be obtained sooner, for half the cost and for people who already live here, I can not for the life of me see why this project is only picking up speed.”