Thumbnail photo by James Brooks
The Los Angeles-based nonprofit developing Battery Point Apartments has obtained the additional grant dollars it needs to pay its subcontractors and resume construction, its president told Crescent City councilors Monday.
Bill Rice told councilors that Synergy Community Development Corporation closed on an additional $9.7 million in federal HOME Investment Partnership Program dollars from the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
In addition to paying its subcontractors by the end of the week, Synergy is bringing in additional construction management to help its general contractor get back to work on the 162-unit affordable housing development at Gary and E streets, Rice said.
“We’re regularly up here,” he told councilors, adding that he would be happy to give regular reports. “We’re inspecting the property, meeting with folks on site. I figured it would be helpful to at least hear what’s up (with the project).”
Rice’s public comment came after county resident Doug Dye asked City Manager Eric Wier to offer regular reports on the development. Noting that it’s going on five months of a work stoppage, Dye said the project looked “so critically distressed it’s frightening.”
Dye said the residents in the area deserved information about the project.
In addition to offering a more holistic conversation about Battery Point Apartments, Rice reminded councilors that the first 40 units will be dedicated to housing low-income seniors.
“Megan Miller with the Housing Authority already has a long waiting list of folks that are desperate for housing,” Rice said.
Rice reiterated a statement the Crescent City Housing Authority director made at a City Council meeting in March — 72 out of the 79 seniors on the authority’s waiting list for a housing voucher are Del Norte County residents.
Battery Point Apartments will consist of three buildings. Two of those buildings will be for workforce housing and low-income families and will be stick-built, according to Rice.
One of those buildings was constructed at a factory in Henderson, Nev. and shipped to Crescent City, Rice told Redwood Voice Community News in March. Synergy decided on a pre-fabricated building for the senior housing apartments in order to bring those units online faster.
That building was delayed due to additional re-engineering requirements to meet seismic safety standards — according to Rice, instead of 8-inch thick concrete walls housing the stairwell those walls will be 20-inches thick. The senior housing structure will also have anchors that are 8 feet below the ground rather than the initial 3 feet, Rice said.
Synergy’s president also described the “massive weather conditions” in December and the water damage it caused.
“We were about to close on additional funding from the state and because of the additional water damage the state, rightfully so, (wanted) serious inspections and reports,” Rice said. “We brought out three different companies to do that (work) on behalf of the state, the lender.”
Synergy is currently going through the insurance claim process due to the water damage that the storm created, Rice said, but added that the organization should be caught up and able to remobilize.
Synergy is developing Battery Point Apartments in partnership with San Clemente-based nonprofit Step Forward Communities. In 2022, the two organizations received support from the Crescent City Council to obtain a $7.5 million Infill Infrastructure Grant from California. They said they were also pursuing federal tax credits to build the apartments.
The developers broke ground on the site in September 2024 and had aimed to begin moving tenants into the senior apartments by November 2025. In March, Rice told Redwood Voice that Synergy, Step Forward Communities and their general contractor, Argenta Construction Group, hope to move tenants in later this year.
