A 135-unit apartment complex in San Lorenzo has new owners with plans to carve out affordable housing from a property built back in 1976. JSB Capital Group and Faulkner Capital Partners have purchased Bayfair Apartments, a complex off Highway 185 near Interstates 238 and 580, with intentions to designate part of the units as affordable housing.
The acquisition, reported by Multi-Housing News, covers a property sitting on roughly 4 acres at 16077 Ashland Ave. The complex is within walking distance of Bayfair Center, an 820,000-square-foot shopping center described as one of the first malls in San Francisco's East Bay. Fuller Enterprises previously owned the asset, according to Yardi Matrix data cited in the report.
Berkadia arranged $23.2 million in acquisition financing through Fannie Mae's Multifamily Affordable Housing program, per the same report. The note carries a seven-year term with five years of interest-only payments. A separate account from The Registry puts the sale price at $31.1 million, about 10 percent below the property's April 2025 asking price, though that figure comes from snippet-level reporting that has not been independently confirmed.
Inside the 1976-Built Complex
Bayfair Apartments comprises 13 three-story buildings with one- and two-bedroom layouts averaging 671 square feet. Many units were renovated prior to the sale, gaining simulated wood flooring, granite countertops and updated fixtures, the outlet's report notes. Amenities across the property include a swimming pool, a landscaped courtyard and covered parking.
Berkadia's acquisition team included Managing Director Matthew Robbins and Vice President Abigail Beauchamp, alongside Senior Managing Director Mitch Sinberg and Managing Directors Scott Wadler and Brad Williamson, who led the acquisition proceedings. Neither the report nor accompanying coverage specifies how many of Bayfair's 135 units will ultimately be designated affordable, what income limits might apply, or when any conversion would take place.
A Growing Bay Area Pattern
Market-to-affordable conversions continue to be an attractive alternative to ground-up affordable developments across the Bay Area, especially when properties are acquired below replacement costs, the report states. The gap in rents helps explain the appeal: Yardi Matrix data cited by Multi-Housing News put San Francisco's average market-rate rent at $3,028, compared with $1,982 for fully affordable units.
Bayfair is not the only Bay Area property drawing this kind of investor interest. The Vistria Group teamed up with Standard Communities to buy the 948-unit Park Kiely in San Jose for $410 million, a deal Multi-Housing News described as the largest such conversion in California's history at the time. Affordable Housing Finance put the transaction's total capitalization at approximately $410 million, with plans to restrict apartments to households earning up to 80 percent of area median income.
Freddie Mac Multifamily described Park Kiely as a 948-unit, 32-acre property preparing to serve San Jose's Stevens Creek neighborhood as an affordable housing community. The agency said it worked with JLL to provide Standard Communities a 10-year fixed-rate, $203.5 million targeted affordable housing loan, adding that the financing would fund substantial rehabilitation and keep the property affordable for decades to come.
Another Peninsula Example
Further up the Peninsula, Ethos Real Estate paid $252.4 million for the 697-unit Hillsdale Garden Apartments in San Mateo, partnering with The Vistria Group to renovate and convert the property to affordable housing. After capital improvements, that community is slated to be reserved for households earning at or below 80 percent of area median income, according to Multi-Housing News's earlier reporting on the deal.
Taken together, the Park Kiely and Hillsdale Garden deals illustrate a financing playbook that Bayfair's new owners appear to be following, even as key details of their own plan — including the share of units to be restricted and any timeline for the conversion — remain undisclosed.
