Wells Fargo funds $82M Oakland affordable housing build

Wells Fargo is providing $82 million of construction debt and $57 million of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit equity for the Residences at Liberation Park, a 119-unit affordable project in East Oakland, Calif. Commercial Observer first reported the financing.

Another $78 million from public and private investors will finance additional development costs, with Alameda County, the City of Oakland and the California Department of Housing and Community Development among the investors. Eden Housing and the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation are developing the project.

For allocators who hold bank construction debt or affordable-housing funds, the deal's capital stack matters: Wells Fargo is both lender and tax-credit equity provider, alongside county, city and state money. Pete Cannava, managing director and head of multifamily capital at Wells Fargo, said the subsidized financing carried the closing. "The lower-cost financing with tax-exempt bonds is really what was able to drive this deal to get to the closing table," he said. Because all units are income-restricted, the loan cannot be repaid from market rents; repayment rests at least as much on tax-credit equity and public money as on the construction loan.

The six-story building at 2751 73rd Avenue, near Eastmont Mall and the Eastmont Transit Center, will have studio through three-bedroom apartments priced for households earning 20% to 80% of area median income.

Wells Fargo has put more than $6 billion of construction debt and tax credit equity into affordable housing in California since 2021, Cannava said.

Before the loan closed, Wells Fargo put nearly $2 million into neighborhood revitalization plans around the site, where community leaders expect a 31,000-square-foot market and retail hub with office space.

Construction began Oct. 28 and is expected to take about three years, Cannava said.