Construction of affordable apartments for Mountain View teachers is set to be finished this summer

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Construction of a major teacher housing project in Mountain View is expected to be finished this summer, although tenants may have to wait to actually move in until a parking garage is completed next year.

The Mountain View Whisman School District has partnered with the real estate developer Miramar Capital to construct 144 below-market-rate apartments at 777 W. Middlefield Road, the site of the former Village Lake apartments.

Most of those units will be reserved for teachers and other school staff. The city of Mountain View will get first dibs on 20 units for its employees, and one unit will be set aside for a property manager. The remaining 123 apartments will be for Mountain View Whisman employees.

The subsidized units are part of a larger 716-unit project of otherwise market-rate units that Miramar is building on the site. The project broke ground in July 2022.

The initiative is meant to help educators afford the high cost of living in the area. Mountain View Whisman teachers earn $77,834 to $139,544 annually, depending on education and experience. The area median income for a four-person household in Santa Clara County was $181,300 in 2023, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

A recent report by the rental search marketplace Zumper found that landlords are asking an average of $3,620 per month for a one-bedroom apartment in Mountain View and $4,280 for a two-bedroom. 

Rent for the district’s subsidized units is expected to be well below market rate, Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph told the Voice.

“This is really going to be a great opportunity for … our teachers and our staff to make life a lot more affordable,” Rudolph said. “I’m really looking forward to the possibility of that.”

Monthly rents are currently expected to average around $2,100, Mountain View Whisman spokesperson Shelly Hausman said, adding that the district is still confirming the numbers and hasn’t finalized what the rent will be for different sized units.

The district’s housing units are expected to be completed in July, Miramar Managing Partner Perry Hariri said. The parking garage will be beneath the market rate portion of the project, which isn’t expected to be completed until the second quarter of 2025, Hariri said.

According to Hariri, Miramar is working with the city of Mountain View to determine what would be necessary to move residents into the district’s units before getting the permit for the parking garage.

Touring the project

In January, Rudolph and other school district officials toured the project with representatives from Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, a school district in North Carolina where Rudolph worked as a principal until 2012. The group of education and business officials from Charlotte came to look at the staff housing as a possible model to replicate, Hausman said.

The group toured multiple apartments in the complex. The units were still under construction but already had items like appliances, cabinets and doors installed.

During the tour, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Chief Academic Officer Nancy Brightwell told the Voice that what she saw showed an intentional effort to honor teachers and provide respectful living spaces. Brightwell described the project as one model that her district could look to as it tries to create its own staff housing.

“We’ve determined that the average first-year teacher is not able to afford a typical one-bedroom apartment on the wages that they earn,” Brightwell said. “So we’ve got to look at solutions like this one to be able to attract (teachers) and have our teachers live and work in the community that they’re serving.”

The 144 subsidized apartments range from roughly 500 to 1,000 square feet and include 19 studios, 87 one bedrooms and 38 two bedrooms, according to Miramar. There are also shared areas including a co-working space, roof deck, laundry rooms, a craft room and bicycle storage.

The school staff will also have access to amenities in the market rate portion of the project, including fitness centers, more co-working spaces, a swimming pool, a game room and an outdoor park, according to Miramar.

The school district is spending $85 million on the project, which is coming from Measure T, a $259 million bond that voters approved in 2020. Originally, the district expected to spend $55 million, but pandemic-induced delays led to cost escalations. Miramar is also contributing $13 million and the city is kicking in $3 million, Hausman confirmed.

The district is also on the hook to pay roughly $1.9 million annually to Miramar for a 55-year ground lease, with the option to renew for up to four additional 10-year terms, Hausman said.

Rent amounts will be set based on the amount needed to cover the ground lease, plus maintenance and operations costs, Rudolph said.