Adding to its six-year track record of securing over $23 million in competitive grant funds, the City of San Fernando was recently awarded $3.56 million to initiate its first downtown mixed-use project.

The award was authorized last week by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature, including Senator Alex Padilla and Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes. The City will receive the funds once it formalizes a development agreement with Burbank-based Gangi Development.

“This is fantastic news,” said San Fernando Mayor Nury Martinez. “We hope these funds will allow the first of many more mixed-use projects aimed at bringing new investment and residents to the downtown area. It's funding like this that also gives the local construction industry – and especially union workers – a much needed boost.”

Gangi Development is proposing a $30 million project to transform an underutilized City parking lot into a four-story, mixed-use building. The project will provide 100 affordable senior housing units, 10,000 sq. ft. of commercial space and a joint public/private parking facility. The $3.56 million award will partially fund construction of the parking facility, in addition to various infrastructure improvements along Celis St. and San Fernando Mission Blvd.

A groundbreaking date is anticipated for fall 2009.

The City’s funding request was among 124 applications vying for $240 million in Proposition 1C funds. Appropriations were made in July after the passage of AB 1252, which expedites the use of funds for important affordable and infill housing projects across California.