Kern’s largest apartment community planned for SW Bakersfield
Construction is set to begin June 2 on the first phase of the largest apartment community in Kern County history, a 520-unit complex at the southwest corner of White Lane and Allen Road.
Debt financing is in place but Santa Barbara-based Fuller Apartment Homes is still looking to raise $8.5 million, which is less than a quarter of the equity investment planned for the $150 million development called Park Center at Seven Oaks.
One-bedroom apartments that will measure 810 square feet at Park Center are planned to rent for about $2,200 per month, while two-bedrooms comprising 1,100 square feet are expected to go for about $2,400, said President Andrew Fuller, whose company has built four other rental upscale communities in Bakersfield.
Proposed at a time when upscale apartments are leading the city’s rents higher despite rising vacancies overall, the project may be most attractive because of its location in an upscale and growing part of southwest Bakersfield where landowner and master planner Bolthouse Properties has drawn developer interest and commercial investment.
“It’s a beautiful apartment community located in a very desirable area of Bakersfield,” said multifamily specialist Marc Thurston with local real estate brokerage ASU Commercial. “Fuller Apartment Homes has a proven track record of building and operating excellent apartment communities. I expect that this property will be tremendously successful.”
The development will be good for Bakersfield, Executive Director Stephen Pelz of the Housing Authority of the County of Kern wrote in an email Friday.
“Besides developing affordable housing, the best way to reduce housing costs is to produce more housing of all types to increase supply,” he wrote.
President Fuller said he is seeing “basically, relative stability” at its other rental units in Bakersfield, with rents rising at about the rate of inflation. He noted this follows a period of turnover he attributed to newcomers from places like Los Angeles who after working from home since the pandemic got “called back to work.”
Playing in Fuller’s favor, he added, are elevated interest rates that have made it more challenging for people to buy homes.
“The apartments are always a really good alternative,” Fuller said.
Part Center is planned to be built in two phases. Phase one is expected to consist of 352 units, the first of which are expected to open in September 2026. Phase two is expected to begin construction late next year. Work has already begun on off-site infrastructure to support the project.
The project will offer recreational spaces including the Stephen J. DeBranch Memorial Trail planned to give residents easy access to the trails following the Kern River.