Expansion sought for Marinwood housing project
The new owner of a parcel in Marinwood is seeking permission to expand a 126-unit housing development for seniors that was approved in 2018.
Under the revised proposal, the Oaks Senior Living Community project at 200 Marinwood Ave. would increase from 101,794 square feet of floor area to 174,368 square feet.
“It’s a huge project, and it is going to be way more imposing in this revised plan,” said former Marin County planning commissioner Don Dickenson.
The height of the two buildings in the plan would increase from two and three stories to four stories each. One building would increase 11.5 feet in height to 52 feet; the other building would increase 18.6 feet in height to 500 feet. An underground garage would extend beneath both buildings and include 126 parking spaces.
The approved project consists of 75 assisted-living units and 51 apartments that were to be for assisted living or independent living, depending on market demand.
Under the new proposal, the development would have 153 apartments: 91 for independent living, 41 for assisted living and 21 memory-care units.
Most of the memory-care apartments would be under 400 square feet. The assisted-living apartments would range from 400 square feet to 1,000 square feet, and the independent-living apartments would be between 559 square feet and 1,234 square feet.
Like its predecessor, the amended plan includes five affordable units. Four would be 740 square feet and the fifth 760 square feet.
Robert Eves, who secured the entitlements for the previous plan, was vague about the reason his project never got built.
“We were involved in a lot of other things at the time,” Eves said.
Regarding the changes, Kent Hawkins, manager of Oaks Senior Living LLC, which purchased the property in 2021, said, “The market is speaking to us. The market wants more independent-living units, and a bit fewer memory-care units. In order to do that, you have to make the units bigger.”
Michelle Levenson, a Marin County planner, said the requested expansion is still being evaluated.
“We are in the process of determining whether they need to amend their master plan for this project,” Levenson said.
Marin County supervisors would need to approve any change in the master plan, which was created in 2005. County supervisors had to approve an amendment to the master plan to clear the way for the previous project design. Those amendments increased the allowable footage from a previous limit of 94,400 square feet.
Levenson said the Marin County Community Development Agency might decide that only a design review amendment is required and they are typically handled at the staff level, but it might require review by the county Planning Commission.
Also still to be determined is whether the five affordable units will meet the county’s inclusionary housing requirement. Developers must price 20% of their projects to be “affordable” or else pay an in-lieu fee.
“It gets complicated with a project like this, because what determines a unit is different in a residential care facility,” Levenson said. “It’s determined by the number of kitchens and the number of meals served per day. We’re in the process of gathering that information.”
Hawkins said, “We’re not changing the footprint. All we’re doing is filling in the envelope to add a few more units.”
He noted that the project will occupy only 9.6 acres of the 106-acre site.
“The bottom line is, the community needs more assisted-living, memory-care and independent-living housing,” Hawkins said. “Nothing’s been built in a long time.”
Before the project was approved in 2018, another proposal for 150 studio apartments for seniors was approved, but it failed to attract investors.
Documents filed in federal bankruptcy court show that Oaks Senior Living nearly lost the property to foreclosure last year. The company was forced into an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for reorganization by Venture Senior Living, one of its creditors, which was represented by Eves.
“They failed to pay financing when it was due,” Eves said, “and the lender on the project at the time filed a notice of default and proceeded with foreclosure.”
At the time, Oaks Senior Living owed Marin County $73,595 in unpaid property taxes on the Marinwood property.
“Our records show that the property at 200 Marinwood Avenue became tax-defaulted twice in recent years, and in both cases the delinquent property taxes were fully paid,” Mina Martinovich, the county’s finance director, wrote in an email.
Venture Senior Living and other creditors agreed to drop the case in July. Eves said the filing was actually a strategy to buy time for Oaks Senior Living to secure another loan so it wouldn’t lose the property. Venture Senior Living was both an investor in and a lender to Oaks Senior Living.
“If a foreclosure had gone forward,” Eves said, “then the property would have been lost, the development would have been finished and my firm would never have been paid the remaining money that it was due.”
Hawkins said financing for the project is no longer a problem.
“We’re fine now,” he said. “We found another lender to replace what we had. That’s all been solved.”
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