A San Rafael developer who has already made a mark on the city’s downtown is poised to have an even bigger part in ushering in urbanization.
Monahan Pacific Corp. has two major housing proposals set for public hearings before the San Rafael Planning Commission on Tuesday. One project is an eight-story, 131-apartment building at 900 A St. The other is a 13-story, 188-apartment complex at 1248 Fifth Ave., which would become the city’s tallest building.
“The downtown is changing,” said Tom Monahan, president of Monahan Pacific Corp., which has offices at 1101 Fifth Ave. “Land is scarce and very expensive. The only way to accommodate the financial feasibility of these projects is to make them larger — and the only place you can go to make them larger is up.”
Monahan Pacific has been involved with other sizable projects in the city in recent years, including the 140-room hotel at 1201 Fifth Ave.
In 2023, the company secured approvals to build an 80-foot-tall building with 162 apartments at 1515 Fourth St. using state density bonus law. In 2024, however, the project shifted to a seniors’ complex of the same size, but with 155 independent and assisted-living dwellings, plus 28 memory-care rooms.
Earlier this year, the developer submitted a preliminary application for an eight-story, 101-apartment building at 790 Mission Ave., also in the downtown area. That proposal marks the fourth project that Monahan Pacific Corp. has in the works in San Rafael. All are within a mile of one another.
Like the rest of Marin, San Rafael is under a state mandate to meet a housing development quota by 2031. San Rafael must allow 3,220 new dwellings by then.
Monahan said between the economic downturn and the COVID-19 pandemic, downtown San Rafael has suffered. The two plans under consideration on Tuesday are important projects to help revitalize the city’s business corridor and also provide 319 new homes, he said.
“It’s an opportunity to bring people downtown,” he said. “The presence of people really encourages more activity in support of retail businesses and restaurants that have been struggling for the past decade.”
Both projects use the state’s density bonus law, which allows developers to build more dwellings than a jurisdiction’s zoned density for a site if they make a certain percentage of the homes affordable.
The project at 1248 Fifth Ave., a 0.65-acre property across from City Hall, would provide 15% of the apartments to very-low-income households, resulting in a 50% density bonus. Out of the 188 apartments, 19 would be offered at the affordable rate, while the 169 remaining would be market rate. Of those, 61 apartments were granted as part of the density bonus.
The project would involve demolishing a one-story commercial building. The complex would have a ground-floor lobby, amenity spaces and 157 parking spaces.
The proposal was submitted under Senate Bill 330, limiting the number of hearings the city may hold on the project to five.
The project at 900 A St. proposes 11 apartments, or 10%, at low-income rates, making the project eligible for a 20% density bonus, allowing for 22 additional apartments. Of the 131 apartments, 120 would be market rate. The complex would have 106 parking spaces.
The project would include a 4,000-square-foot, ground-level commercial space and ground-level parking garage with access from A Street. It would have a courtyard on the second floor, a rooftop deck and private patios.
Resident Sue Burrell, a board member of San Rafael Heritage, a preservation group, said she is particularly concerned about the project on Fifth Avenue.
“It’s a block from the Carnegie library, a block from the historic Boyd House, a block from the historic mission and from Falkirk Cultural Center, across the street from City Hall,” Burrell said. “All of those are core to the historic area, and looking at the photos of the proposal, I can’t imagine a more unattractive building. It’s sterile, has no warmth or connection to the other buildings that exist around it.”
Burrell said while she thinks the A Street proposal is a few stories too tall, it fits better with its environment near the Vivalon Healthy Aging Campus and the San Rafael Transit Center.
The San Rafael Chamber of Commerce supports the projects, said Joe McCallum, associate director of Newmark’s San Rafael office and chair of the chamber board.
“Both projects are logical housing sites in the downtown area and really fit with what was envisioned in the city’s downtown precise plan that the city adopted a few years ago,” McCallum said. “Downtown vitality is directly related to the amount of housing, and these are exciting projects that should benefit the business community, residents and our employers.”
The Planning Commission meeting is at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall at 1400 Fifth Ave. More information is at shorturl.at/fWKkA.
