Oak Creek Apartments, a large housing complex located on a prime piece of real estate at 1600 Sand Hill Road, has been purchased by Stanford, the university announced Wednesday.
An unnamed Stanford affiliate acquired the leasehold on the 759-unit multifamily residential complex, which is located on university land adjacent to the main campus and within a half mile of Stanford's hospitals. The university already owns the land but had leased the property to an operator since 1959. The acquisition involved assuming the ground lease and the buildings.
"The current apartment operator lessee decided to sell its leasehold, and Stanford took the unexpected opportunity to have an affiliate acquire this 26-year leasehold in order to accelerate the supply of housing," the university said.
The acquisition is a singular opportunity for Stanford to add a significant amount of housing for eligible university affiliates close to where they work and learn, the university noted.
For decades, Stanford has been leasing a number of apartments at Oak Creek for members of the university community. Acquiring the leasehold will allow the university to expand apartment rentals to its community at reasonable rates. Existing Stanford-affiliated tenants who are not currently renting one of the university’s master-leased units will receive reduced rental rates at the time of their next lease renewal, the university said. As units turn over naturally, Stanford plans to offer those apartments to eligible university community members.
Postdoctoral students will be the highest priority group because the apartment complex is located near the central academic portion of campus and Stanford Medicine facilities, according to the university.
“Acquiring Oak Creek is a significant step forward in our efforts to expand housing opportunities for the Stanford community on and near campus. I’m especially proud that we will be able to prioritize housing opportunities for postdocs at Oak Creek because they face unique challenges navigating the local housing market,” university Provost Persis Drell said in the announcement.
The rental rates for eligible renters will be less than the standard market rate, as is the case with all of Stanford’s rental communities. The units won't be designated as below-market-rate housing, but they should reduce demand for similarly priced rental housing in the region, the university said.
Comments
Registered user
Leland Manor/Garland Drive
on Sep 22, 2022 at 10:36 am
Registered user
on Sep 22, 2022 at 10:36 am
How does this add any more housing? Those 759 units have existed for years; the only change is that Stanford gets to decide who lives there.
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Sep 22, 2022 at 11:08 am
Registered user
on Sep 22, 2022 at 11:08 am
Does Stanford's expansion ever stop while it takes housing off the market for everyone else, thus pushing up housing costs?
Registered user
Los Altos
on Sep 22, 2022 at 11:34 am
Registered user
on Sep 22, 2022 at 11:34 am
Excellent call on the part of Stanford.
Many of the Oak Creek Apartment dwellers are older people who will not be living there forever.
Registered user
Embarcadero Oaks/Leland
on Sep 22, 2022 at 1:00 pm
Registered user
on Sep 22, 2022 at 1:00 pm
That complex is also used for temporary housing for people relocating to the area and for families and patients undergoing treatment at Stanford Medical for whom Stanford Medical offers no housing, leaving them to beg and plead for help on NextDoor and neighborhood lists.
Registered user
another community
on Sep 22, 2022 at 2:06 pm
Registered user
on Sep 22, 2022 at 2:06 pm
Let's forgive any taxes they might incur doing this. Because, you know... Stanford
Registered user
University South
on Sep 22, 2022 at 2:58 pm
Registered user
on Sep 22, 2022 at 2:58 pm
Someone here described Stanford as a real-estate conglomerate. with a school as a side venture.
Sounds right.
They also are buying up homes in College Terrace and in Menlo Park, according to public listings.
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Sep 23, 2022 at 12:00 am
Registered user
on Sep 23, 2022 at 12:00 am
(Le)Land Stanford is up there with the gilded age of robber barons like Stanley Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller . Stanford massive land holdings reminds me of the Smithsonian and amassing “history” of things. Stole, pillaged, plundered for bones, baskets, tribal beliefs are stored in their basements . The “conspicuous consumption” of (Le)Land Stanford speaks volumes to another Century of gild by lavishing on themselves the treasure of gargantuan proportion, swallowing up everything and everyone in the way. Share the wealth, give in already. To the West is Stanford to the north is Facebook, to the the east is Google and to the south is Apple. The weather vein has to change direction for the majority of human earth dwellers and all other living creatures squeezed and pushed around from the Billions of dollar enterprises aforementioned . Tomorrow children will still be unhoused and go to school, and not be able to go “home” after the bell rings. Without a space to call “home” there is one constant for an un-homed child: a safe space in a classroom, a kind teacher, breakfast & a hot lunch.
Registered user
Old Palo Alto
on Sep 23, 2022 at 10:08 am
Registered user
on Sep 23, 2022 at 10:08 am
Oh yes and Oak Creek denies S8 housing choice vouchers. The manager was pretty nice when he said no. At least he returned a call. Granted that was back in 2013 when housing was simmering at the top. Now it’s boiling over. I doubt return a call from Stanford Real Estate. Stanford absolutely does not accept gov subsidized rent help in any form outside their university boundaries. Yet many of their workers and grad students utilize food stamps (cal-fresh) to feed food to their own families to survive.