Cupertino apartment residents stunned after complex set to become student housing
A community college district is set to buy a Cupertino apartment complex to help students facing sky-high housing costs. Current residents said they have been blindsided, as they need to find a new place to live.
With pups and kids, Rachel Green envisioned her family living in the McCllelan Terrace Apartments in Cupertino for at least two years.
"This was the most affordable cost for our family," Green said.
But to her surprise, that plan recently and suddenly changed.
"We were just out in the courtyard with our kids playing, and the neighborhood kids informed us of the news," she told CBS News Bay Area.
She learned the property management company of her 94-unit complex, Prometheus Real Estate Group, has agreed to sell the complex to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which plans to turn it into student housing.
But that means she and her neighbors will have to move out.
"It's very stressful," she said.
Green said there has been no official correspondence from the property management company. She and her neighbors found out the details through news reporting.
"All the communication we see online is that we have to be out by the summer," she said. "We just need some kind of communication – official communication."
On the other side of the equation, Foothill-De Anza Chancellor Lee Lambert says the acquisition, made possible with money from Measure G, a bond measure voters approved in 2020, will address a longtime and major need for the community college district.
"We're right at the precipice of making this happen for our students and community," Lambert said.
Lambert said the district was exploring a different option, but when this possibility arose, it meant they could create a lot of student housing, quickly.
"We wouldn't have to build new, we could go almost turnkey in many cases," he said. "That's probably going to equate to about 330-ish beds."
The purchase price tag? Around $67,000,000. The estimated renovation cost? Around $28,000,000.
If the process moves forward without any hitches, Lambert says students could be living at the complex by the fall.
"It's a start of making progress towards addressing the greater need of affordable housing," he said.
Green said she sees and understands the district's need. However, she's concerned about a lack of affordable housing nearby for those who will now have to search for it.
"I think the primary concern for most of the people I've talked to is... keeping our kids in the school system – not disrupting their education," she said.
CBS News Bay Area reached out to Prometheus Real Estate Group to try and get answers, but did not receive a response.
According to a recent presentation by the Foothill-De Anza Community College District that outlines the details of the proposed purchase and sale agreement:
· Current tenants in 12-month lease terms will be able to finish their leases
· Month-to-month tenants will be given 120 days minimum of a date to vacate
· The seller will work to help relocate tenants
· The District will provide relocation services and assistance
"The property is still in the hands of Prometheus, so I'm really not in a place to comment too much about the current residents," Lambert said. "As a district – our board, myself, our administration – we care about people. We care about how people are treated. So, we're always going to take that human centered approach."
Green says she'd like to see more transparency as she and her neighbors navigate their new reality.
"I wasn't planning to move for the next two years," she said. "So, in the two years that I could take the time to save and put money away, now I'm going to have to dip into money that I don't easily have available to be able to move."
