AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT)

By Jon Peterson

Washington, D.C.-based AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust (BIT) and San Mateo-based Sares Regis Group of Northern California are planning to start development in May on the 260-unit Cadence apartment project in South San Francisco. The address of the project is 398, 400 and 405 Cypress Avenue.
The BIT has made an equity investment into the project of $143 million, as stated on the investor’s Web site. The project is being done in a partnership with the BIT and Sares Regis Group, and it has an official groundbreaking planned for May 17th. The projection is that the development will take 20 months to complete once it gets started.
Sares Regis feels that the site is a very strong location. “I think that the renters in the project will like that our project will be only a quarter mile walk to the Caltrain station. This will allow them to have public transportation either to San Francisco or Silicon Valley. The renters could also walk to downtown South San Francisco to get to shopping and entertainment locations,” says Ken Busch, senior vice president with Sares Regis Group of Northern California.
All of the apartments in the development will be market rate units. Some of the amenities in the project will include a rooftop lounge, fitness center and club rooms. The project will have five stories over two levels of parking.
“We are very excited to have this new project coming to our city. It will help with the demand for housing that we have. It will be part of our downtown specific plan that we approved in 2015 where at least 1,450 units could be added to our city going forward. Cadence will also replace a site that has been a vacant site for several years and was the home of an old Ford car dealership,” said Alex Greenwood, director of economic and community development for the city of South San Francisco.
The BIT has a significant presence in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to its 2016 fourth quarter report on its Web site, it has a portfolio in the region with a net asset value of $700 million. This region amounts to 15.3 percent of its $4.67 billion total net asset portfolio. Four of its top 10 holdings are based in the region. These are the San Pedro Square Apartments in San Jose, Hacienda Crossings shopping center in Dublin, the Alameda Landing Shopping Center in Alameda and an office building in Fremont. The trust has also invested $88 million of equity into the development of the 395-unit MacArthur Commons apartment development in Oakland, which broke ground earlier this year. This development is being done with the Trust and Houston-based Hines.

BIT’s long-term investment strategy is to build and maintain a stable and diversified pool of assets through the acquisition and development of core properties in target markets throughout the United States. Its major markets besides the San Francisco region include Seattle, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami and Philadelphia.