Neighboring buildings that have seen better days in downtown Bakersfield are being transformed, however haltingly, into housing for the area\u2019s young workforce.<\/p>\n
The properties \u2014 The Georgian Building at 2025 18th St. and the former Fountain Plaza immediately to the east at 2011 18th St. \u2014 are planned to add more than two dozen apartments measuring 400 to 500 square feet. They are expected to rent for about $1,350 per month.<\/p>\n
Project representatives say the Fountain Plaza project has run into complications that have pushed back its opening date to about the middle of next year. Meanwhile, painting is about to begin at The Georgian as the developer considers design options for the building\u2019s ground floor and adjacent carriage house.<\/p>\n
Built in grand architectural styles, The Georgian in the 1920s and Fountain Plaza in 1950, both buildings fell into disrepair over the years. While The Georgian still features four large apartments in its upper floor, the Fountain Plaza suffered break-ins and repeated fires that required a partial demolition.<\/p>\n
After renovations started months ago at the Fountain Plaza, work came to a halt as closer inspection found that fire damage called for a different permit than was originally obtained by the owner, Jarrell Epp, and his partners at the Downtown Business Development Corp. New paperwork has since been submitted to the city of Bakersfield.<\/p>\n
Plans for the property now call for 16 or 17 one-bedroom units intended to house people working downtown who may not want to own a car and are not ready to buy a single-family home in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink the kids out of college that are working for the county, that are working for the city,\u201d DBDC Chairman Alan Alvarez said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said the plan for both buildings is to offer rents that come in below market rates \u201cto show that we can provide affordable housing without being subsidized and it still makes financial sense. \u2026 We\u2019re trying to make a point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Epp, whose late father bought the properties among others around town, said he\u2019s glad to be part of what he sees as downtown\u2019s resurgence in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just excited to be a part of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Project co-developer Bob Bell, who has headed up his own commercial construction projects in the general area, has been helping Epp move the projects forward. He said all three buildings, including the carriage house, will be attractive, fully fenced and gated.<\/p>\n
The Fountain Plaza will have a new fountain he said will be \u201cstunning,\u201d while The Georgian \u201cis going to look amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tentative plans call for putting nine apartments in the lower floor at The Georgian, plus three additional units in the carriage house. Bell said the property will have a garden area available to tenants at the address.<\/p>\n
The work will likely require putting in all-new electrical and plumbing, he said, noting that the actual design of the new layout is still under consideration, even as workers were busy Tuesday preparing to paint the building\u2019s exterior.<\/p>\n
Bell said the area needs additional housing, but more than that, it needs units that young people can afford.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe need is way more than 31 units,\u201d he said. \u201cI just hope we can help people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Neighboring buildings that have seen better days in downtown Bakersfield are being transformed, however haltingly, into housing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-436949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}