This could be downtown San Diego’s biggest apartment complex. Almost all of it is affordable housing

A developer is seeking approval for the first phase of a massive 1,000-unit residential complex that would be the biggest in downtown San Diego.

The Mirka 1000 complex would fit on a 2.1-acre triangle lot on National Avenue between Commercial and 16th streets. It is about two blocks from Padres Tailgate Park and a short walk to the 12th and Imperial Avenue trolley station.

Kursat Misirlioglu, CEO of San Diego-based Mirka Investments, said the full project cost could reach $600 million. Downtown San Diego’s biggest complex has been Park 12 near Petco Park with 718 units since 2018.

Mirka 1000 could be five years from completion, with the developer opting to build each tower separately. Plans for the 21-story first tower, which is 318 units and all subsidized housing, were sent to the city’s Development Services Department in early August. Misirlioglu said his hope is to start construction in May 2026.

“Working families need a place to live,” he said.

Mirka Investments mainly does subsidized housing and has built around 700 apartments in San Diego County since its founding in 2018. The Mirka 1000’s second and third towers could include some market rate housing, Misirlioglu said, but that is still being decided.

Approvals are being fast-tracked through the city for the first tower because of laws that prioritize subsidized housing. It would not require a City Council meeting, or something similar, and the first tower is likely to be approved by the Development Services Department within the next few months.

Even if Mirka 1000 did have to go through a lengthy public review, it would be unlikely to get much resistance. The lot where the towers are proposed tends to be near the highest concentration of downtown residents experiencing homelessness. On Monday, several homeless men surrounded the site with shopping carts full of belongings.

Just a little more than a block from the busy 12th & Imperial Trolley Station, the proposed lot is marked with dilapidated buildings, graffiti, weeds growing through holes in the concrete and barbed wire topping a fence surrounding much of the property. A small pipe supply company still uses the space Monday through Friday, and has a small parking lot.

Mirka 1000’s East Village lot is across the street from complexes with similar missions for downtown’s most vulnerable residents, including the St. Teresa de Calcutta Villa subsidized housing complex, the St. Vincent de Paul Village homeless shelter and the Joan Kroc Center, which has many homeless services.

San Diego has been in the hot seat in recent years for putting too much subsidized housing in a single area. It agreed to a settlement in June that agreed to spread out new rent-restricted projects across at moderate- to-high income neighborhoods. East Village has been the epicenter of affordable housing in downtown, but it also has had higher end developments mixed in.

Stephen Russell, CEO of the San Diego Housing Federation, said there is always a danger of putting too much low-income housing and social services in one area. He said it runs the risk of just creating an impoverished neighborhood. Yet he was less concerned about the Mirka site.

“Because this is connected to the greater downtown area,” Russell said, “you just have to walk a few blocks and you are in the Ballpark District. Having concentrations of poverty are bad when there are no resources nearby, but I would say people (at Mirka 1000) will be able to walk to jobs, walk to any number of transit options.”

Misirlioglu praised the city for its help in getting the project moving along. Mayor Todd Gloria signed an executive order in early 2023 to expedite permitting for 100% subsidized housing projects that requires city officials to review projects within 30 days. The Mayor’s Office said it usually beats that, averaging 11 days, and has so far led to the approval of more than 4,000 subsidized units.

Mirka 1000 is years from changing downtown’s skyline. Misirlioglu said his ideal scenario would be starting construction on the second tower in 2027 and the third tower in 2028. He also left open the possibility that the final two towers could be built together.

A few things still need to be ironed out: the amount of parking on the site, when potential renters can apply and any number of issues that come up as construction starts. While some parking is likely, Misirlioglu said being close to the region’s most-connected trolley stop would make it easier to live without a car. The green, blue and orange lines all converge at the 12th & Imperial station.

“It gives access to whole city and beyond,” he said of the trolley stop.

Mirka Investments and its partner Pacific Southwest Community Development Corporation are paying for much of the first tower with federal and state money, and tax breaks, set aside for subsidized housing. Paperwork filed with the state for the first tower shows more than $16 million in tax credits and an $81.6 million tax-exempt bond allocation.

The building is guaranteed to remain subsidized housing for 55 years and is made up of entirely two- and three-bedroom units, making it likely low-income families will take advantage.

Rents will be based on average annual incomes, from 80% of the San Diego County’s area median income ($132,400 for a family of four) to 30% of AMI ($49,600 for a family of four). Most of the first tower, 124 apartments, are set aside for those making 60% of AMI, or $99,240 for a family of four.

Russell said Mirka 1000 could be a catalyst for fixing up downtown’s most impoverished area but it won’t mean all the homeless people hanging around the site this week will magically have a place to live when it is completed. He said, realistically, those people would need units that are set aside for 30% of AMI and a housing voucher. Still, Russell said building more affordable housing is what is needed to get more people off the streets.

“You could criticize the project as concentrating poverty in an area subject to a lot of homelessness,” he said, “but this is the answer to homelessness.”