Casa Roseland Opens 75 Affordable Apartments and a New Park in Santa Rosa's Roseland

Officials cut the ribbon Friday on Casa Roseland, a 75-unit affordable apartment building in southwest Santa Rosa, along with Plaza Permanente, a new one-acre park at Sebastopol Road and West Avenue. Residents have been moving in since July.

The building

The four-story building cost $47 million and the park about $4 million, the Press Democrat reported. Underground utilities and other site work cost another $38 million. Developer MidPen Housing owns and manages the complex, which has 24 one-bedroom, 30 two-bedroom and 20 three-bedroom apartments, plus a two-bedroom unit for the on-site manager.

The apartments are for households earning 30% to 60% of the area median income. MidPen told the paper rents start at $849 for a one-bedroom at the lowest income level and go up to $2,355 for a three-bedroom at the highest. As of Friday, 54 of the 74 rentable units were occupied. About 4,000 people are on the waiting list, and new tenants are picked by lottery and then screened, which usually takes one to two weeks.

Who paid for it

Funding came from many sources. Rep. Mike Thompson pointed to the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, and state Sen. Mike McGuire said the state put nearly $42 million into the wider Tierra de Rosas project. The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District gave $2 million toward the park. Speakers also included Supervisor Chris Coursey and Santa Rosa Councilmember Eddie Alvarez, whose districts include Roseland.

What is still missing

Casa Roseland is the first major piece of Tierra de Rosas, a mixed-use plan that has been in the works for nearly two decades. The rest of the plan has no firm schedule. A 100-unit market-rate building planned next door has no timeline because of high construction costs and interest rates, according to Michelle Whitman, who leads the Sonoma County Community Development Commission. The county has an agreement with the nonprofit Health Equity Rising to use a civic parcel south of the building. A request for proposals for a small commercial space drew no responses this spring.