News Room
Mendota housing tract back on track
By Sanford Nax-The Fresno Bee
March 23, 2004
City officials in Mendota say the sale of 62 lots in a once-troubled subdivision will lead to the construction of much-needed housing. "There is definitely a need for housing," said Mendota City Council Member Joseph Riofrio. "Mendota has become a place where single-family residences have become minihotels with 20 to 30 people living in them."
Central Development of San Jose bought Hacienda Gardens subdivision north of the city from Tower Investment of Woodland for $1.3 million. Central Development plans to build homes that will be priced from $120,000 to $130,000, said Darrell Souza of Sperry Van Ness. Souza represented Central Development and Tower Investments.
Central Development is a subsidiary of Northern California Universal, which builds 300 to 400 homes a year and is developing the Sun Villas housing tract near Peach and Jensen Avenues in southeast Fresno, Souza said.
Riofrio said housing is in short supply in Mendota, where families double up or live in garages and back yards during the busy harvest season. "There are so many people paying $700 to $800 a month for substandard housing," he said. Production builders have largely ignored Mendota, which has a population of about 8,000, over the last several years.
One of the largest subdivisions was by Self-Help Enterprises, which constructed 74 homes between 2001 and 2003. Self-Help is a nonprofit organization through which buyers pay for the down payments through sweat equity, building up to 70% of their houses themselves.
"There certainly is a pent-up demand in Mendota," said Michael Lane, a management analyst for Self-Help, who said the organization couldn't supply enough houses.
The sale of the lots at Hacienda Gardens is a positive step for a residential project recovering from a knotty past for more than a decade.
Funds for the original subdivision came from bonds issued by the city's redevelopment agency and an assessment district. But the city foreclosed on the assessment district bonds after the then-developer failed to pay taxes, said David Weiland, city attorney.
Over the years, residents in the area complained of streetlights that weren't hooked up, backed-up sewers and receiving foreclosure notices even though they made regular mortgage payments.
"This has been a troubled project from the beginning," Weiland said. But changes are under way. "A very complicated workout between the city, redevelopment agency and the bond trustee resulted in the land being sold to Tower Investment," Weiland said.
Tower Investment specializes in working out problems with property that is heavy in debt with bonds and getting it to the point where a developer can build on the land. "Over the past year, we've had good news at Hacienda Gardens. Tower Investment was the one that came in and straightened stuff out with the bondholders," Riofrio said. The sale from the investment group to homebuilders could speed development at the subdivision.
The 62 lots are the first phase of the 127 that the homebuilders could buy and develop, Souza said.
The developer already has applied for building permits on 16 of the first 62 lots and construction may start this summer, he said.