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Art courtesy of Navair Manor Family Housing Project

'It's a great project that will fit well into the neighborhood,' the city's housing and neighborhood preservation officer, Dyane Matas, said. Pictured here is one of three designs for the new homes.

New homes are slated for former Navy land

The 9.6-acre piece of land will hold 85 homes

By Justin Berton

Regis Homes will start construction on the Navair Manor Family Housing Project in the fall after acquiring the land from the city of Sunnyvale earlier this year.

The 9.6-acre piece of land at Duane and Morse avenues that once housed Navy families will now be the site of 85 new homes.

Todd Regonini, vice president of Regis, said the $25 million project should be completed next year.

Prices for the new homes have yet to be set, but a clause in the land deal calls for 13 of the homes to be priced below market value.

"It's a great project that will fit well in the neighborhood," said Dyane Matas, the city's housing and neighborhood preservation officer.

The new neighborhood is designed to blend in with the surrounding areas.

"We designed a traditional neighborhood with streets and no walls separating the homes from other neighborhoods," Regonini said.

The acquisition of the land closes the six-year process that began after congress enacted the Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC). The land became available after BRAC determined the Navy's land to be "excess."

In 1989 the Loma Prieta earthquake badly damaged the homes, and in 1991 the Navy demolished all structures on the site.

The city expressed an interest in the land in 1993. According to Dave Vossbrink, Sunnyvale's public information officer, the city wanted to purchase the land so that it could be in control of what was developed there. Specifically, the city wanted to offer below-market housing. In 1995, the Navy asked the city to find a developer for the land, and, a year later, it chose Regis. The city purchased the land in 1996 for $6.2 million and then resold it this year to Regis for the same amount. "We worked as a middleman," Matas explained.

The houses will have three different floor plans, with options of three or four bedrooms.

"We are not going for a luxury product," Regonini said. "We're going for something that works well for the city of Sunnyvale."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, March 25, 1998.
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