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As the housing crisis has grown across California, the state has seen a rise in the number of “super commuters,” residents who commute longer hours to cities starved of affordable housing, including those in the Bay Area. While the number of jobs brought into the Bay Area has grown in recent years, the availability of housing has not matched this increase, according to State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley. People working in service-type jobs are not being paid wages that would allow them to afford housing in the cities where they are employed, forcing many to make long commutes to and from work each day, Skinner said. “Those are essential services, but then they’re driven out to living further and further away just to be able to afford somewhere to live,” Skinner said. Census data from 2015 reported San Francisco , Alameda and Contra Costa counties’ average commute times to be 31.7 minutes, 30.7 minutes and 35.3 minutes respectively — an increase from 2010, when the commute times for...

Uniondale- based RXR Realty will receive more than $1.2 million in tax breaks to build a downtown Glen Cove apartment and retail project , the Glen Cove Industrial Development Agency decided Tuesday night . The IDA unanimously approved $1.24 million in mortgage and sales tax exemptions for Village Square, which, in addition to 146 apartments and 15,000 square feet in retail space, will include a 16,000-square- foot plaza deeded to the city for public events. Most Popular The board also approved 18 years of payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that will start at $183,062 for the first three years and increase 2 percent annually for 15 years. The value of that property tax break is undetermined. All seven candidates in the Sept. 12 Democratic City Council primary and the Democratic mayoral candidate , Councilman Timothy Tenke , attended the meeting and said afterward they support redeveloping the 2.8-acre site, most of which is comprised of vacant buildings. But they oppose the t...

lower Black Rock Turnpike and Commerce Drive, would be redeveloped into a five-story, mixed-use building under plans discussed with members of the Town Plan and Zoning Commission last week. Photo: Andrew Brophy / Fairfield Citizen" class="landscape" /> Bigelow Tea corporate headquarters , is being considered for the site of a five-story, mixed-use building with 102 apartments. Photo: Andrew Brophy / Fairfield Citizen" class="landscape" src="src" /> lower Black Rock Turnpike and Commerce Drive, would be redeveloped into a five-story, mixed-use building under plans discussed with members of the Town Plan and Zoning Commission last week." src="src" /> Bigelow Tea corporate headquarters , is being considered for the site of a five-story, mixed-use building with 102 apartments." src="src" /> Photo: Andrew Brophy Image 1 of / 2 Caption Close Image 1 of 2 About 2.6 acres, the former site of an Edge gym a...

Section of rendering by architect Stephen Jacobs . A proposed five-story mixed use building with 116 apartments and ground-floor restaurant and retail uses on East Main Street and McDermott Avenue won approval of the Riverhead Town Board Tuesday night . In a split 3-1 vote, the board approved a pair of resolutions that simultaneously dispensed with extended environmental review and approved a site plan and special permit for the “ Riverview Lofts ” project proposed by Georgica Green Ventures LLC of Jericho. The actions green-light the construction of the five-story building with 12,623 square feet of first- floor commercial space , 55 on- site parking spaces and four-stories consisting of 116 workforce rental apartments : 31 studio, 37 one-bedroom and 28 two-bedroom units. Councilman Tim Hubbard , without comment, cast the lone vote against both measures. Councilwoman Jodi Giglio , an owner of Summerwind Square — the first mixed-use apartment building built in the downtown dis...

When it comes to condominium development , Cascadia’s two largest cities couldn ’t be more different. Last year nearly 60 percent of new housing starts in the city of Vancouver, BC , were condominiums; meanwhile, Seattle saw no new condominium buildings open . And that’s not changing anytime soon: less than 10 percent of all building slated for downtown Seattle in the next three years will be condos. What’s the difference—why the blossoming of condominium construction in one city and the almost complete dearth in the other? The short answer is economics. In Vancouver, apartments are saddled with an unfavorable tax code , making condos the more lucrative multi- family housing investment even despite high rental demand . In Seattle’s skyrocketing rental market , one that’s climbed even faster than the condo market in recent years, apartment buildings are much more financially attractive, while condos come with bigger risks and, typically, lower returns. Compounding this profit differe...