GARDEN GROVE, CA – Jamboree Housing Corporation and the United Methodist Church of Garden Grove broke ground today on Wesley Village, an innovative, multi-use urban campus encompassing multigenerational affordable housing as well as educational, social and health services that will be available to the larger community.
A public/private venture, the campus is being developed on 2.2 acres of the church’s excess parking space and vacant land that, together, create the site for two three-story multifamily buildings that will include 47 affordable apartments for 31 working families and 16 senior households to create a true multigenerational community asset.
A third building within the campus will house a Head Start Learning Center, adult day care, behavioral health services and after-school activities, plus a range of other social, education and health services, that will be available to Wesley Village residents and the community at large. Jamboree’s Community Impact Group is serving as the catalyst and facilitator for this community collaboration.
“With the development of Wesley Village, we are witnessing the creation of something truly unique and progressive,” said Garden Grove Mayor Bao Nguyen. “Not only will this pioneering campus bring new revenue to our City and the church, but it will provide multigenerational housing for families and senior citizens as well as important social, education and health services designed specifically to meet the needs of its residents and the surrounding community. We welcome this exceptional mixed-use development to our City.”
Developed in a unique public/private partnership with Jamboree, the City of Garden Grove and the United Methodist Church of Garden Grove, the Wesley Village campus features approximately 10,000 square feet of active open space, with almost one-half of that space provided on a podium deck courtyard that is part of the family apartment building.
The campus amenities include a community center that will house the management office, a health clinic, library, and multipurpose rooms accessible to local community service providers. Outdoor amenities feature a barbecue area, tot lot, and landscaped community spaces for outdoor fitness and activities. Laundry facilities will be located in each residential building, and a combination of covered and uncovered parking spaces will be available for residents and guests.
To secure the development site, Jamboree entered into a 60-year ground lease with the church that will provide ongoing financial support for the church's charitable activities.
“One of the fundamental principles of the United Methodist Church is that we have a responsibility to innovate, sponsor and evaluable new forms of community that will encourage development of individuals and families to reach their fullest potential,” said Reverend Dr. Bau Dang. “In keeping with this principle, we see Wesley Village, which is named after the founder of the Methodist Church, John Wesley, as a way our church – in concert with the City of Garden Grove and Jamboree – is providing land for the creation of a new community that will strengthen the lives of people and promote their health and well being. We are pleased to be part of this unique collaboration.”
Laura Archuleta, Jamboree president, said, “This innovative collaboration will create not only quality affordable housing for families and seniors, but will establish a platform to expand critically needed community services such as Head Start that will benefit the surrounding neighborhood and residents. We believe this is also a pioneering development that could open the door for other forms of collaboration to create new opportunities for affordable housing throughout the state.”
Archuleta pointed out that Wesley Village represents a major step in advancing Jamboree’s Community Impact Initiative to improve the overall health and well-being of a community, making it stronger as defined by access to quality physical and mental health services, improvement in educational outcomes, improved social bonds, access to parks and recreation facilities, and a feeling of security within a community.
“Our initiative achieves this by offering meaningful programming to both our residents and the immediate neighborhood,” she explained. “This boots-on-the-ground approach gives Jamboree the best opportunity to improve the life of the community as a whole by addressing its real needs with social, education and health programs that have the best chance of being sustainable and successful in the community in which they are being offered.”
In Jamboree's ongoing commitment to sustainability, Wesley Village features ENERGY STAR appliances and water-efficient plumbing in each apartment, low-VOC interior paint, CRI Green Label low-VOC carpeting and underlayment, and low-VOC adhesives. Interiors are heated by a highly efficient central boiler system, and the outdoor green belts feature water-conserving landscape irrigation systems.
With these and other sustainable features, Wesley Village is designed to achieve a LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) for Homes Silver rating and to exceed California’s Title 24 CalGreen energy efficiency standards by 17%. This certification lowers energy consumption, providing a cost-saving benefit to and promotes the health of residents. The LEED Green Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings.
Financing for Wesley Village consists of $3.7 million in HOME Funds provided by the City of Garden Grove through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and a Housing Authority Loan; $4.2 million in permanent financing from the California Community Reinvestment Corporation; $6.3 million tax credit equity invested by Boston Financial, and $11 million in construction financing provided by U.S. Bank. United Methodist Church of Garden Grove is the ground lessor.
About Jamboree: Founded in 1990 and celebrating its 25th anniversary, Irvine, CA-headquartered Jamboree Housing Corporation is an award-winning, broad-based nonprofit housing company that develops, acquires, renovates and manages permanently affordable rental and ownership housing throughout California for working families, seniors and people with special needs. A leading community development organization, Jamboree is committed to sustaining excellence with high quality affordable housing that benefits the environment, the economy and local communities. It currently has $300 million in affordable housing projects in its development pipeline and a $1.1 billion asset portfolio that includes the development of and/or ownership interest in more than 7,500 homes in more than 75 California communities. Currently, Jamboree’s Community Impact Group offers resident services that foster learning, health and community building at 35 Jamboree communities with designated staff at each location. For more information, visit jamboreehousing.com.