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San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Santa Rosa wants to build 7,000 apartments. This luxury project could make or break the plan
The new Felix apartment building is unlike anything downtown Santa Rosa has seen before. At eight stories and 168 units, the L-shaped mid-rise at 420 Mendocino Ave. is both the tallest and densest building in the city's downtown. And it's definitely the fanciest: There is a double height co-working space with a sleek fireplace and office pods, a wellness center with cedar wood sauna and private steam shower rooms, a rooftop 'sky lounge' with firepit, demonstration kitchen and views of downtown and the Sonoma Mountains. The luxury comes with a cost. Studios start at $2,400, one-bedroom apartments at $2,995 and two-bedrooms at $3,745. Rent prices in Santa Rosa average about $2,000 for a one-bedroom and $3,000 for a two-bedroom, according to Zillow. If the building seems like a slightly more laid-back version of the sort of plush, four-star residential buildings in cities like San Francisco and New York — project architect David Baker calls it 'the hotelization of apartments' — it's because the developer, Related California, has long built some of the most deluxe towers on both coasts. For Related, the shift from major urban centers to smaller cities like Santa Rosa is part of a conscious move to cater to a post-pandemic landscape in which remote work allows for more geographic flexibility. In Santa Rosa they saw a downtown with great bones — a SMART train station, central green space in Courthouse Square, historic buildings, lively 4th Street restaurant row — that would attract people who want to be in a city but close to the wineries and hiking trails and rustic towns that make Sonoma County enchanting. 'We recognized that our customer was moving here and we recognized that the quality of product they were looking for did not exist in this market,' said Matthew Keipper, senior vice president with Related. 'We really view this as an exciting opportunity to follow our customer.' While it's too soon to say how fast the building will fill up — it opened in late May and Related declined to say how many units have been leased — downtown Santa Rosa boosters say it will be closely watched as a barometer of whether the market can support the level of investment needed to realize the city's downtown plan, which calls for 7,000 new housing units to be built in the 720-acre neighborhood by 2040. Currently there are 2,445 housing units in the downtown area, predominantly older duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes in established residential neighborhoods. In recent decades the city has grown largely through sprawl, a trend that came under scrutiny after the 2017 Tubbs Fire wiped out 2,800 homes in the city. 'It's definitely a test case,' said Jen Klose, executive director of the North Bay advocacy group Generation Housing. 'Our downtown needs an infusion of activity and we also just need housing here for all levels, including our young professionals and folks who might be attracted to a place like the Felix.' One group that will be paying close attention to how the Felix performs is Cornerstone, a North Bay real estate investment firm that has a pipeline with six downtown Santa Rose projects totalling 2,000 units. Two of those projects were fully entitled in 2020: an eight-story, 118-unit building on a parking lot at 556 Ross St.; and a six-story, 114-unit complex on a former railroad yard at 34 6th St. Both projects have been stalled due to the usual mix of lofty construction costs and high interest rates, but they could break ground in the next 12 months if the Related project does well, according to Pauline Block, director of marketing and development for Cornerstone. 'We are really excited about Felix,' said Block. 'It's right downtown, next to our projects, and it's of the quality we are aiming for. We are definitely interested to see the demographics that move into that building and how quick they lease up.' Cornerstone is working on lining up construction financing for the first two buildings, and the Felix will help make that case to lenders. 'In a market like ours it can be challenging when you say you are going to build a building of that size and quality and there is nothing similar nearby you can point to,' she said. While the North Bay has a well-earned reputation for being anti-development, there seems to be little opposition to adding density in downtown Santa Rosa. The city recently cut impact fees and Related only had to pay fees on the first three stories of the eight-story building. Felix won approval in just 75 days, and Baker described the community meetings on the project as a 'lovefest.' 'Santa Rosa has a shockingly laid-back culture,' Baker said. 'I was surprised we didn't get people screaming at us trying to stop it. People we like, 'You want to build this downtown? That would be great.'' Part of the acceptance of downtown density may be a result of lessons learned from the 2017 wildfires, which destroyed about 5% of the city's housing stock. Damages in the city topped $1.2 billion and exposed the risks of concentrating development in wildlands-urban interface zones rather than downtown. 'It makes a lot of sense to put density downtown because of the fire situation on the outskirts,' said Baker. But it's also a question of Santa Rosa coming to terms with the reality that it's a midsized city, not a small town, according to Klose. Santa Rosa grew from about 168,000 people in 2010 to 176,000 in 2023, and is projected to grow to 204,000 by 2030, according to the Association of Bay Area Governments. It's the largest city between the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oregon border. Santa Rosa isn't much smaller, in population, than cities like Providence, R.I., or Fort Lauderdale, Fla. And it is about the same size as Eugene, Ore. and Shreveport, La. 'All these cities that are our size or slightly bigger, they have real skylines,' Klose said. 'Santa Rosa has been a little stuck in the past, but it's kind of time for us to grow up.' Santa Rosa Metro Chamber CEO Ananda Sweet said there is county-wide support for growing downtown Santa Rosa, but that it's been hard to attract capital in a post-pandemic world with high interest rates and rising construction costs. The chamber has established a housing trust fund that helps groups with pre-development costs that conventional lenders don't typically cover. The fund is focused on low- and moderate-income housing, and has already provided a loan to Phoenix Development, which is converting two under-utilized bank buildings on B Street to 72 workforce units. Sweet said downtown Santa Rosa 'has so much potential that we are on the cusp of capitalizing on.' 'Even our members who don't do business in Santa Rosa really care about a thriving downtown,' Sweet said. 'Seeing Felix generate so much interest really helps tell the story for other developers and employers of what is possible downtown.' For Baker, who also designed the pioneering Hotel Healdsburg in that city's downtown, Felix is the culmination of a decade of work. He was initially hired by previous property owners on earlier iterations of the project that stalled out several times. He said downtown Santa Rosa 'has always been on the verge of happening but never quite does.' Maybe that is changing, he said. To celebrate the Felix he also made a ceramic sculpture for the lobby, a seven-foot totem of giant stacked seed pods. 'Thinking about the fertile Sonoma area, we wanted to reflect ideas around seeds — optimistic, vergevital, burgeoning, putting down roots and supporting new growth,' he said.
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Sonoma County officials warn of dangerous wildfire season outlook
(KRON) — Sonoma County officials are urging residents to prepare for a high-risk wildfire season. As temperatures rise through the summer and fall, high fuel loads and unfavorable windy weather conditions could combine to create a large wildfire. County officials wrote, 'Sonoma County is expected to experience warmer and drier-than-normal conditions from June through August, with only limited relief from the coastal marine layer.' Officials said extended periods of dry and high winds will lead to flash drought conditions. Flash droughts, characterized by prolonged periods of high temperatures and strong winds, cause rapid evaporation and drying vegetation. 'We're entering this fire season with conditions that demand heightened vigilance,' said Lynda Hopkins of the county Board of Supervisors. Cal Fire Division Chief Ben Nicholls with the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit said, 'The reports clearly show we need to be vigilant and prepared for an increased threat of large wildfires.' The 2017 Tubbs Fire ravaged Napa and Sonoma counties, destroying more than 5,500 homes and killing 22 people. On October 8, 2017, tens of thousands of people woke up to the sounds of sirens and crackling flames. It was a dark, uncomfortably warm night, met with ferocious winds. People were forced to abandon their homes within minutes. It took four months for firefighters to contain the blaze that blistered 36,000 acres. The National Weather Service created a new warning level in 2025, known as 'Particularly Dangerous Situation' (PDS), to indicate an unusually high risk of severe weather in association with extreme Red Flag Warnings. A PDS warning is used to highlight specific areas most vulnerable during a natural weather event. Heading into the second half of 2025, community members are encouraged to sign up for emergency alerts, maintain defensible space around their homes, and review evacuation routes. You can sign up for alerts and find fire preparedness resources at 'We can't prevent every wildfire, but we as a community can be better prepared to keep ourselves and loved ones safe,' said Jeff DuVall, director of the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management. 'We've strengthened our alert systems, updated evacuation maps, and are working hard to ensure the public has timely, accurate information when it matters most.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Bracing for the heat: Santa Rosa announces wildfire season has begun
The Brief The Santa Rosa Fire Department on Monday announced the start of the city's wildfire season. The department will begin conducting weed abatement inspections to ensure properties are defensible against wildfires. SANTA ROSA, Calif. - On the heels of a 20-acre grass fire that threatened an RV encampment, the Santa Rosa Fire Department on Monday announced the official start of fire season in the region. In an effort to prevent more destructive fires in the months to come, the department will, in the next two weeks, begin conducting weed abatement inspections at properties throughout the city. Paul Lowenthal, the SRFD Fire Marshal, said he hopes announcing the start of fire season will help residents better prepare themselves and their homes. "We've seen really significant compliance, especially what's here locally. When you look at the Tubbs, Nuns, Glass and Kincade fires that either burned through the city or directly impacted the city and threatened the city, people have changed their behaviors," Paul Lowenthal, Fire Marshal with the Santa Rosa Fire Department, told KTVU. "We've seen an increase with compliance with weed abatement, compliance with defensible space and compliance with overall vegetation management, ultimately making our community safer." The department's weed abatement inspections are part of the city's vegetation management program, which requires property owners to maintain fire-defensible space around a structure. The ordinance requires grass to be cut to four inches or less, as well as the removal of dead plants, grass and weeds, maintaining trees so that no portion is closer than 10 feet from the chimney opening of a neighboring property, and removing the branches of trees up to 10 feet from the ground. Big picture view Santa Rosa has experienced or been threatened by several notable wildfires in recent years, including the Tubbs Fire, the fourth-most destructive blaze in California's history. That fire, which burned in October 2017, destroyed over 36,000 acres in Napa and Sonoma Counties. The Bay Area's wildfire season, as stated by the Western Fire Chief's Association, an organization made of the leadership of firefighting organizations across the western United States, starts in June and can run through November. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, climate change has caused the national window for wildfire season to peak earlier in the year. Between 2003 and 2021, fire season peaked in July, whereas between 1984 and 2002, most wildfires occurred in August. The impact of climate change on wildfires is becoming more and more evident. Two of the most destructive blazes in California's history swept through Southern California in January of this year, well outside the window of the region's wildfire season, May through October. The research organization World Weather Attribution, which studies the influence of climate change on extreme weather events, found that human-caused global warming made the conditions that drove those fires 35% more likely.
Business Wire
28-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Exchange Bank Promotes Ali Spitzer to Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer
SANTA ROSA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Exchange Bank (OTC: EXSR) is pleased to announce the promotion of Ali Spitzer to Senior Vice President and Chief Credit Officer, recognizing her outstanding leadership and continued contributions to the Bank's long-term success. Spitzer brings a wealth of experience to the role, having served in multiple leadership positions since joining the Exchange Bank. From her early days as a Credit Analyst to roles as Underwriter, Loan Officer, and most recently Credit Administrator, Spitzer has demonstrated exceptional versatility, strategic insight, and a deep commitment to the principles of community banking. 'Ali's promotion is a reflection of her unwavering dedication, her ability to lead with both integrity and vision, and the respect she has earned throughout the organization,' said Troy Sanderson, President and CEO of Exchange Bank. 'She exemplifies the leadership qualities that drive our mission and strengthen our commitment to the communities we serve.' In addition to her professional accomplishments, Spitzer has been recognized by her peers and the broader business community. She was recently named one of the North Bay Business Journal's Influential Women of 2025 and is a past recipient of the North Bay Business Journal's 40 Under 40 award, celebrating rising leaders in the region. Spitzer's civic involvement includes her current board position with the Santa Rosa Metro Chamber, where she continues to play a meaningful role in regional economic development. She has previously served on the boards of the Sonoma Community Action Network and the Business Alliance of Sonoma County, contributing significantly during community recovery efforts following the Tubbs Fire and other local crises. Her dedication to community banking is matched by her passion for helping customers and communities achieve their goals, and she remains committed to supporting organizations that drive local progress. About Exchange Bank Headquartered in Sonoma County and founded in 1890, Exchange Bank is a full-service community bank with assets of $3.27 billion. Exchange Bank provides a wide range of personal, commercial, and trust and investment management services with 17 retail branches in Sonoma County, a retail branch in Roseville and Trust & Investment Management offices in Santa Rosa, Roseville, Marin County and Silicon Valley. The Bank's legacy of financial leadership and community support is grounded in its core values of commitment, respect, integrity, and teamwork. Exchange Bank is known for its people who care about their customers, their company, and the communities where they live and work. Exchange Bank is a 19-year winner of the North Bay Business Journal's Best Places to Work survey and a 13-time winner of the Best Bank of Sonoma County by the Press Democrat's Readers' Choice 2024 awards. Exchange Bank was named Best Consumer Bank by the NorthBay biz Magazine's Best of the North Bay readers' poll and Best Local Bank by The Petaluma Argus Courier People's Choice Awards 2024. Exchange Bank is also a winner of the 2024 San Francisco Business Times Corporate Philanthropy award, and the Bohemian Magazine's Best of the North Bay 2024 named Exchange Bank Best Business Bank and Best Consumer Bank. Member FDIC — Equal Housing Lender — Equal Opportunity Employer
San Francisco Chronicle
02-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Hedge fund buys Press Democrat and four other North Bay publications
Hedge fund Alden Capital's MediaNews Group is acquiring the Press Democrat newspaper and five other North Bay publications. The purchase agreement, confirmed by the companies on Thursday, would add the Santa Rosa-based publication to Alden's dozens of newspaper holdings that include the Mercury News, East Bay Times and San Diego Union-Tribune. 'We always believed that a viable, independent local press was vital to our North Bay community. We believe that the newspaper, its staff and most importantly the public will be best served under the stewardship of MediaNews Group, with the newspaper expertise and financial resources necessary to carry on our mission of delivering the highest-caliber local journalism for future North Bay generations,' said Darius Anderson, managing member of Sonoma Media Investments, in a statement. The sale would honor the existing contract between the newspaper and the Pacific Media Workers Guild, the newsroom's union. 'We are honored to bring a newspaper of this quality into MediaNews Group,' said Frank Pine, executive editor of MediaNews Group, in a statement. 'We appreciate the importance of local news and information to the communities where we publish and are proud to expand our commitment to Northern California in the North Bay.' The Press Democrat won a Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for its coverage of the Tubbs Fire. The sale also includes the Sonoma Index-Tribune, Petaluma Argus-Courier, North Bay Business Journal, Sonoma magazine, Sonoma County Gazette and La Prensa Sonoma. Hearst, owner of the Chronicle, was also reportedly a bidder for the newspapers.
