The Alameda Housing Authority (AHA) recently completed a purchase of the property at 2615 Eagle Avenue from the Alameda Unified School District (AUSD).

The two sides held a small ceremony to celebrate the property transfer on March 21 at AUSD’s central office. The 1.05-acre site once housed the district’s Maintenance Yard.

AHA will use the property to build an affordable housing development. The organization plans to build 40 to 50 affordable rental homes on the site, according to a joint press release from AUSD and AHA. The higher capacity will allow AHA to help alleviate the housing crisis in the Bay Area by building more housing for families. The apartment units will be affordable to households making between 20-80% of area median income and will include a preference for individuals who live and work in the City of Alameda including AUSD employees.

“This site acquisition is key to the Housing Authority’s mission of preserving and increasing affordable housing in Alameda and further strengthens our longstanding partnership with the school district,” said Vanessa Cooper, AHA executive director, in the joint statement. “We are particularly pleased that this acquisition will provide a valuable mid-island location for affordable housing.”

The site was the location of the district's Maintenance Yard since 1924. It has housed AUSD’s trade shops, (such as for carpentry, plumbing, gardening, painting, and HVAC) and a district warehouse. However, the district said the buildings and pavement on the property had fallen into significant disrepair and were even unsafe in some areas. Public discussions about what to do with the three parcels on the site began in September 2017, when the AUSD Board of Education first gave direction to staff to form a District Advisory Committee to analyze and make recommendations on various AUSD real estate holdings.

Meanwhile, in August 2018, the district re-acquired the Miller Elementary School site on Singleton Avenue from the U.S. Navy with the intention of converting it into a new Maintenance Yard. With the Singleton Avenue property, the Board declared the Maintenance Yard site “surplus property” in August 2020. Four months later, the California State Board of Education approved AUSD’s request to sell the property.

The district issued a Request for Proposals for the property in January 2021. AUSD selected AHA’s proposal for a reported $2.5 million. The deal was approved by the Board at its Aug. 10, 2021, meeting.

“This agreement between AUSD and AHA helps both agencies attain valuable resources at this time,” said AUSD Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi at the time of the sale. “AHA now has a site for much-needed affordable housing in this town, and AUSD now has a bigger, safer Maintenance Yard. These kinds of partnerships serve to make communities more united, more cohesive, and more resilient; it has been a pleasure working with the Housing Authority.”

AHA will start design and development in 2022 and seek funding in 2023. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2024.