Slow Start for
Tam Ridge
Newest development could provide Marin
with a walkable community. BY JIM WOOD
They are high density,
but in the 21st century
that’s where housing
is headed.
of California Public Employees’ Retirement
System (CalPERS) money on exurban devel-
opments in Arizona and Southern California.”
Tam Ridge Residences are one part of
Victor MacFarlane’s comeback. He also
recently bought and sold a key multimillion-
dollar property on San Francisco’s Market
Street and reportedly is developing a 660-unit
apartment complex in downtown Los Angeles.
Local rumors hold that MacFarlane’s
financial entanglements are to blame for Tam
Ridge being a year late in coming to market.
“That’s not entirely true,” says Mill Valley’s
Hank Baker, a real estate marketing consul-
tant who advised MacFarlane Partners in the
early stages of development in Marin. “Much
of the slowdown, I think, results from archi-
tect, contractor and developer differences
— changes to plans, cost overruns, those kinds
of things — that often occur in a project of this
magnitude. It’s not unusual.”
As for rental income from 180 units lost
during the extreme construction slowdown,
Baker says, “Bay Area lease rate increases may
offset the additional development costs.”
What are the lease amounts? By snooping
around, I discovered that an 850-square-
foot one-bedroom will go for about $3,000 a
month, a 1,100-square-foot two-bedroom for
$3,850 a month, and a three-bedroom town
house for around $4,550 a month. Which
means Tam Ridge will be occupied by house-
holds earning, on average, $130,000 a year.
Meanwhile, 18 of the 180 units are classified
as “affordable housing,” with rates based on a
tenant’s income.
Nationwide, there’s ample evidence that
people, young folks especially, not only want
walkable communities, but are anxious to free
themselves from their cars. And if public transportation is convenient it will be utilized.
That said, after a slow start but now nearing
completion, Tam Ridge Residences could very
well blend in here and possibly even enhance
the livability and economy of Marin County.
That’s my point of view. What’s yours?
Email pov@marinmagazine.com.
ONLY IF YOU’VE spent the past four years on a deserted island would you not know the furor the Tam Ridge
Residences (actually they’re apartments, 180
of them) have caused in Marin County. First it
was the project’s massiveness; then its adding
to traffic and drought problems; and lately it’s
been the project’s colors. As a topper, last week
a Corte Madera neighbor requested the media
stop calling the development “WinCup,” referring to the 40-year-old steam-emitting factory
that previously occupied the four-acre site
adjacent to Highway 101. “It’s a disservice to the
name WinCup,” she claimed.
Actually, I like the concept of Tam Ridge
Residences. Yes, they are high density — 40
units per acre — but in the 21st century that’s
where housing is headed. People want “
walkable” communities. And Tam Ridge, on Tamal
Vista Boulevard, is indeed that. Three retail
centers and K- 12 schools are less than a mile’s
walk away. And transportation is also close by
in the form of ferries, buses, the freeway and
biking and hiking paths.
Tam Ridge is a development of MacFarlane
Partners of San Francisco, headed by Victor
B. MacFarlane. The company has been around
for 25 years, not all of them pleasant years.
The Great Recession smacked MacFarlane
hard; according to the Washington Post, in
2011, MacFarlane’s assets under management
went from $20 billion down to $4 billion. In
the process, Victor MacFarlane, once referred
to as the “most prominent African-American
financier in San Francisco,” lost his two $35
million penthouses at the St. Regis Hotel,
where his longtime pal Willie Brown still
resides, and his ownership of D.C. United,
a soccer team based in the nation’s capital,
where many of his real estate investments
are located. And according to the Bay Citizen,
“Mr. MacFarlane lost more than $1 billion
POV
The vie ws and opinions expressed in this article are
those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
policy or position of Marin Magazine and its staff. RIC
H
A
R
D
W
H
E
E
L
E
R
