South Korea Firm, Modular Startup Team on San Jose Housing

A real estate firm based in South Korea and a Bay Area modular housing startup are planning to build 780 affordable apartments on a vacant site in north San Jose.

The 3.2-acre site at 7 Topgolf Drive is located next to Topgolf’s popular sports, entertainment and dining venue in the Alviso district in San Jose.

The developers have filed plans with the city to build 100% affordable housing in eight apartment buildings to rise on the site, which is in proximity to the interchange of North First Street and State Route 237, according to a report in SiliconValley.com.

According to the plans, the eight buildings each will be seven stories tall, with ground-floor retail space.

Prior to the pandemic, a 200-room hotel was planned for the site. A loan for that project went into default and the lender seized the property. Pine Tree Investment & Management, a South Korea-based firm that is an affiliate with the lender, purchased the site in May 2022 for $27.6M, the report said.

An entity called Korea Land and Housing Corp., also known as LH Housing, will lead the development, which will include Cloud Apartments, a Bay Area startup that designs modular apartments that can be built at factories and “snapped together” at the building site.

Founded by a former SpaceX engineer, Cloud Apartments raised $3M in a funding round that closed in January 2023.

San Jose-based Cloud told investors that its prefabricated modular apartment -which on the company’s website are being described as being built like luxury cars-allows developers to “sprint through” the process of assembling an apartment building, dramatically lowering costs.

In January 2023, Cloud said it was planning housing projects at five Bay Area sites, in San Jose, Concord, Berkeley, Redwood City, and Watsonville; the company said the projects were pending approval from the cities.

Cloud was founded by former SpaceX engineer Curtis Wong as a rental development company that uses modular-construction processes usually associated with single-family housing.

Cloud engaged partner factories, including modular builder Autovol, to manufacture units on assembly lines. Wong has focused on using modular housing to create affordable units.

Cloud utilized three apartment designs: a 500 SF studio, a 1,000 SF one-bedroom, and a 2,000 SF two-bedroom.

Multifamily Spring:

Multifamily Spring is coming to New York City this April 18. This year’s program will bring together the industry’s most influential and knowledgeable real estate executives from the multifamily sector for 5 hours of face-to-face networking and over 5.5 hours of can’t miss sessions. Learn more or register here.