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Foster City Replaces Blighted Shopping Center with Housing For All Income Levels | Posts

A deserted street corner with a modernist building, street signs, and minimal landscaping under a cloudy sky.

The Community Before

Foster City had a rundown shopping center with an abandoned gas station. The gas station was unused for some fifteen years and two of the remaining nine shopping center tenants had abandoned their sites.

An old dry cleaning establishment had left the area in need of clean up. In addition, the center blocked views of the Bay. The shopping center’s neglected condition discouraged investment in the neighborhood. 

A modern apartment complex with a central courtyard features a circular fountain and landscaped greenery.

The Community Now

Now the site is home to the Miramar, a 159-unit apartment community, for people at all different incomes levels.

The Project Involved:

  • High density, residential units built to maximize opportunities for affordable housing
  • 20 percent of the units are affordable for people of very low-income (incomes no greater than 50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI))
  • 10 percent of the units are affordable to moderate income earners (up to 110 percent of AMI)
  • Affordable units are leased by senior citizens and young families
  • Spurred significant rehabilitation in a neighboring apartment complex