Atmosphere is also important to us because it was a very long, complicated project that had a lot of moving pieces in it, and sometimes the pieces weren't moving—like when the RDA went away. We were finally able to put the pieces together.

We are a fairly small non-profit in terms of developers. We're big, but we don't have gazillions of bucks in the bank, and we had millions of dollars tied up in this thing for years. It's a long time to be carrying that kind of debt in the form of predevelopment loans. It was somewhat soft debt from friendly lenders, but it still needed to be paid back.

GlobeSt.com: What is the market like for affordable-housing development in Downtown San Diego?

Sauder: In affordable housing, we have a saying that if you simple build it, the market's there for it. The bottom line is there's a tremendous need for affordable housing. As soon as units are built, there is no problem renting them out. On our $80-million budget, as in all our projects from $40 million to $80 million, we have a line for marketing of $5,000, but for the most part there is really no marketing. There's such a strong need for this housing that we have no problem leasing them even without marketing.

The entitling isn't as much the issue for us; the issue is organizing the financing and getting those sources lined up. The entitling and design reviews were really great to go through because they went through Centre City Development Corp., which is now Civic San Diego. It doesn't constantly get kicked back and kicked back, and there's no bureaucracy.

GlobeSt.com: How does Downtown compare to other submarkets here for affordable development?

Sauder: In terms of processing projects and getting them through the entitlement process, it's a little more difficult and design review is not necessarily as easy outside of the redevelopment areas. Having said that, we have never been held up in any project—to the best of my knowledge—because of the entitlement process taking too long. On occasion, we may have had hold-up from neighborhood obligation or a neighborhood being against the project. There have been no major NIMBY issues either. When we've presented projects to neighborhood groups, they've made suggestions, and we worked that out. The only problems we have in terms of putting these deals together are on the financing side of it. There are different layers and levels of financing in affordable housing. Entitlement is challenging, but it doesn't hold up our timeline very much.

GlobeSt.com: What else should our readers know about this project?

Sauder: What impresses me about this project is the architecture. Obviously, I'm biased, but it's beautiful. Joseph Wong Design Associates did a fantastic job on this project. It will be a great contribution to Downtown and will help make us look like a classy place. Also, it's unique because of the wide spectrum of people it will be serving. The people in here will be homeless and other special needs, and there will be others who are simply working families. This is a great thing about this project.