Construction to convert the Crestview Hotel in Mountain View into permanent affordable housing is slated to begin this month, the project developer recently announced, setting in motion plans to create more affordable units for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

But nearby residents don’t need to fret: Nearly all the construction work will be happening inside the existing building, and crews will be able to park on-site so that they don’t take up already limited space on surrounding streets.

“We will work hard to minimize impacts on the neighborhood and surrounding community,” affordable housing developer Jamboree said in a July 7 email, which announced the pending construction plans. “Almost all of the construction work will be to the interior of the building and will be completed by the summer of 2024.”

In early 2021, the city sought to buy the Crestview property, located on El Camino Real near the Sunnyvale border, and convert the building into affordable housing, eventually teaming up with Santa Clara County to carry out the plans. A presentation in January 2023 shows that future tenants will be a mix of people at risk of homeless, the formerly homeless and transition-age youth.

Marc Mastroianni, Jamboree’s general superintendent of construction, said during a May 24 virtual community meeting that construction will include renovating each of the project’s 48 units to be equipped with a kitchenette, bathroom, wardrobe, and space for a bed and entertainment.

Much of the interior construction work will also involve reconfiguring the bottom floor of The Crestview to create space for Jamboree’s services team, Mastroianni said. Overall, about 90% of the construction time will be spent on the interior of the building, he said.

“Jamboree builds housing with services, and we spend a lot of time making sure that we design and construct the spaces that are dedicated to service in a way that will best serve our residents,” he said.

Mastroianni added that the site has ample space for construction crews to park, in order to minimize parking impacts to surrounding neighborhood streets.

“If you look at the L-shaped gray space to the left, that is existing parking, which we will be using as the primary parking for our construction workers,” he said, referring to the site map image shown above. “The (right) gray space, you’ll notice, has an in and an out driveway, and we’re going to use that primarily (for) unloading trucks, so that we don’t block El Camino Real.”

The peach-colored space in the center of the site map will be a future outdoor amenity space, Mastroianni said. For now, it'll be used to store construction materials during the project.

“We also adhere to and implement noise mitigation efforts,” he said. “We do everything we can to keep our disturbance of the neighbors at a minimum.”

If any issues arise, Mastroianni said, Jamboree wants to hear about it.

“We have a staff member who will be dedicated to documenting community concerns around construction,” he said. “Their contact information will be posted outside of the construction site,” located at 901 E. El Camino Real in Mountain View.