SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A growing trend in San Diego is helping address the housing shortage as companies convert vacant hotels into apartment complexes, offering residents new housing options at competitive rental rates.
Ambient Communities has been working for years to transform the former Consulate Hotel, which was built in the 1970s and sat vacant for years, into the Celeste Point Loma Apartments. The project will offer 127 units in an area that has seen limited new housing development.
Robert Honer, a principal for Ambient Communities, said the conversion provides an alternative housing option for young professionals and students in a desirable neighborhood.
"If you're going to graduate school, if you get your first job this is a community that people like to live in. For me the only way we could afford it was we put a bunch of kids in a single family home and did it that way. So this is an alternative to that," Honer said.
The conversion approach allowed the company to reduce construction costs by keeping most of the building's outer structure intact. The former hotel rooms have been converted into studio and one-bedroom apartments of similar size, but with upgraded amenities including washers, dryers, dishwashers and microwaves in each unit.
The development also features community spaces including a lounge area, outdoor BBQ area and resident kitchen to compensate for the smaller individual unit sizes.
"The reality of these units is the square footage of the units is relatively small, so we wanted to create larger spaces for people to spend time together because there's not a lot of room in the actual units themselves for people to host larger gatherings," Honer said.
According to Rentcafe.com typical rentals in Point Loma range from $2,500 to $3,000 per month. At Celeste Point Loma Apartments, rent starts in the low $2,000 range and goes up to the low $3,000s, depending on the unit type and upgrades, potentially saving renters several hundred dollars monthly.
The property will also offer four income-restricted apartments for qualifying applicants, with rent ranging from $1,447 to $1,550 per month.
The property is now accepting applications and is scheduled to open next month.
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