384-Unit Apartment Complex Proposed

A development company has proposed building a 384-unit apartment complex near St. John’s Regional Medical Center, a move Oxnard officials say reflects a rapidly strengthening local real estate market.

If the development by SIA Partners is approved, it would mark the first large apartment complex in this city since the 1980s, officials said.

During that decade the rental market in Oxnard became saturated, and apartment construction ceased during the sharp economic downturn of the early 1990s, said Joyce Parker, the city’s planning and environmental services manager.

While the number of new subdivision proposals has increased in Oxnard during the past couple of years, the apartment-building market has remained stagnant. SIA Partners--based in Houston and with offices in Santa Barbara--filed an initial application on the apartment complex last week, officials said.

The proposal calls for 24 buildings of 16 units each to be built on a 25-acre parcel near Lombard Street and Graves Avenue. With apartments rented at market rate, the complex would include two swimming pools and a volleyball court.

Currently, the parcel is used for farming, but was zoned for residential development several years ago and is within city limits, Parker said.

Bob Ludwick, a consultant to the development firm, said that in recent years real estate investment has shifted away from apartment complexes and toward retail shopping centers, such as the Rose Avenue retail corridor in northeast Oxnard.