When The Unity Council set out to revitalize the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, using community-driven development, its leaders were told it couldn’t be done. The area had faced decades of disinvestment.
Thirty years later, Fruitvale Transit Village is a renowned transit-oriented development with mixed-income housing, retail, offices for community organizations and easy access to services residents need.
The neighborhood already had “good bones,” said Arabella Martinez, co-founder of The Unity Council. “We were able to do all the things which made those good bones really shine.”
The Unity Council—then known as the Spanish Speaking Unity Council of Alameda County—was founded in Oakland at the height of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
“It was this small but mighty group of local activists that started advocating on behalf of basic needs in the community,” said Chris Iglesias, CEO of The Unity Council. “They started getting some wins and just continued to grow from there, really responding to the needs of the community. And I think that’s what has kept us around for 60 years.”
The area, now home to Fruitvale Transit Village, was once Oakland’s second downtown, Martinez said. But after World War II, the community saw disinvestment and displacement.
When a prominent new development—a parking garage—was proposed in the 1990s, Fruitvale’s reaction was overwhelmingly negative. Parking wasn’t going to spark economic development essential to keeping residents in the community.
The Unity Council had a vision for a very different type of project: a transit-oriented development providing safe, affordable housing and access to much-needed services.
“It’s revitalization of the community, and doing that with the people in the community,” Martinez said.
Making that vision a reality took decades of work, close collaboration with a team of public and private organizations, and a commitment to local needs.
People told The Unity Council it would be impossible for the organization to develop a project on Fruitvale Transit Village’s scale, Martinez said. The organization needed to convince critical local organizations to support their vision and raise substantial funding to get even the planning stages off the ground.
“They had that passion, that love for the community, that made it non-negotiable,” said Cécile Chalifour, West Region Manager for Community Development Banking at JPMorgan Chase, which supported Fruitvale Transit Village with multiple layers of financing.
Over nearly 30 years, The Unity Council grew Fruitvale Transit Village into a 19-acre mixed-use development including:
But the final phase of development was critical to completing The Unity Council’s vision: an affordable housing development that could help keep Fruitvale’s long-term residents in the community.
Casa Sueños is a 181-unit affordable housing community The Unity Council co-developed with San Francisco-based BRIDGE Housing, one of the leading nonprofit affordable housing developers on the West Coast. The colorful new community is a substantial addition to the pool of affordable housing in Fruitvale, said Jim Mather, BRIDGE Housing’s Chief Investment Officer. Casa Sueños also includes 46 supportive housing units and space for a local nonprofit serving the community.
“What that does is helps stabilize [the neighborhood],” Mather said. “You get better educational outcomes for kids, you get better financial outcomes for adults, you get better outcomes for folks who need supportive services.”
JPMorgan Chase’s Community Development Banking provided an $89.8 million construction loan and $55.7 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit investments to develop 47 affordable housing units.
“The fact that The Unity Council, in partnership with other organizations, was able to envision it and work with BRIDGE Housing to actually build it—I still think it’s kind of a miracle,” Iglesias said. “It has really lifted up the community in so many ways.”
All the growth in Fruitvale Transit Village meant residents needed a space to gather. The Unity Council had owned an abandoned Masonic temple—an ideal location for a community center—for about 20 years. But the building needed renovations and accessibility improvements, including an elevator.
JPMorgan Chase provided a $3.95 million New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) equity investment—the final capital needed to fund the project. In addition to hosting events, the building will house Peralta Service Corporation, The Unity Council’s social enterprise organization, as well as a small business assistance center and affordable co-working space.
“We call that ‘lasagna financing’ because there are so many layers that have to come together, that’s what makes these projects special,” said Jalen Marable, Vice President with JPMorgan Chase Community Development Banking’s NMTC team. “When you can get so many different organizations working together to create something as meaningful as this project, it’s always special to see.”
JPMorgan Chase also provided $3 million in philanthropic capital to The Unity Council to lead economic development efforts in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood with the goal of creating a prosperous, vibrant, diverse and sustainable neighborhood, with good jobs, affordable housing and an ecosystem of local businesses.
The firm also opened a JPMorgan Chase Community Center branch in Oakland, which will include services such as financial health workshops, mentoring for entrepreneurs and a community event space along with traditional banking services.
“We are bullish about the Oakland community and saw the vision of the whole village, and how transformative it will be for the entire area,” Chalifour said.
Oakland still faces challenges, but completing the final phase of Fruitvale Transit Village after 30 years “has lifted up the community in so many different ways,” Iglesias said.
“I hope it gives folks hope for the future. To show that—despite the pandemic and all these financial challenges—we could continue to deliver these types of projects for the community,” he said.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Visit jpmorgan.com/commercial-banking/legal-disclaimer for disclosures and disclaimers related to this content.