Affordable senior housing to be dedicated Monday in El Cerrito

The Hana Gardens Senior Apartments. Photo - edenhousing.org

A 63-unit mixed-use affordable senior housing complex next to El Cerrito City Hall will be dedicated at noon on Monday.

The Hana Gardens Senior Apartments at 10860 San Pablo Ave. occupies a 40,000-square-foot site that was formerly home to Tradeway Furniture.

The four-story, mixed-use development has 62 one-bedroom apartments and a two-bedroom manager's unit, along with 2,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space suitable for a restaurant or retail use.

The project has 23 units designated for a household income at 30 percent or less of the area median income, eight for incomes at 45 percent or lower and 31 for 50 or less. Units will also be offered at least one pass through the AC Transit Easy Pass program for the first three years.

Hana Gardens has a restored 400-square-foot former florist shop, an outdoor public plaza and Japanese Heritage Garden with interpretive signs and sidewalk markers, celebrating the Japanese-American flower growing industry that thrived for decades in West Contra Costa.

The flower shop was operated by the Mabuchi family, who lived in an attached home in the rear.

The complex is one of several new housing projects built, under construction or planned along San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito.