“We were doing it before it was fully legalized, and before it became a cool thing that everybody’s talking about,” said oWOW Construction CEO Danny Haber, reflecting on an engineering shift that just rescued a stalled San Diego housing initiative.
San Diego’s landscape of affordable development shifted on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, when civic leaders broke ground on an eight-story residential building at the corner of 16th Street and Island Avenue. Spearheaded by Father Joe’s Villages, the 124-unit project marks the first affordable housing development in the city to utilize mass timber, an engineered wood product priced lower than traditional steel and concrete.
The groundbreaking ceremony featured Deacon Jim Vargas leading the organization alongside San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn and Arete Development CEO Jodi Rothery, with local coverage published by the Times of San Diego. The event celebrated a construction milestone designed to pull a vital regional project back from the brink of cancellation.
Resurrecting a Stalled Vision Through Mass Timber
A component of Father Joe’s Villages’ grand vision to construct 2,000 affordable apartments for vulnerable San Diegans collapsed two years ago. At the time, Rothery had nearly received a city building permit in 2024 when the financing fell through. Adopting mass timber technology effectively dropped the cost per unit from $530,000 to $380,000, shaving millions off the total bill.
“After the years of planning, designing, financing, redesigning, refinancing and what felt like a mountain of paperwork,” Rothery said, “it is very exciting to finally be standing here with shovels instead of spreadsheets today.”
Beyond fiscal relief, the material shift altered the physical geometry of the building. Because mass timber requires less interior space for support beams, developers expanded the unit count by 22 homes without increasing the number of floors. The final blueprint includes 68 studios, 55 one-bedroom apartments, and one two-bedroom apartment. Some studios were upgraded to one bedrooms.
Streamlining Permitting and Financial Engineering
The path to construction relied on a coalition of public and private backing. The property itself was donated by God’s Extended Hand, a homeless-serving nonprofit, after the city said the old building at the site was a hazard. Even with the land gift, the original economic model remained out of reach until the pivot to pre-fabricated mass timber elements streamlined the timeline.
Copley Foundation completed funding for the project.
“San Diegans want more affordable housing, and this city is streamlining the process and making it easier to get these homes built,” said Councilmember Stephen Whitburn.
Targeting the Precarious Margins of Housing Insecurity
The units will be restricted to those making 30 to 60% of the area median income. Individuals entering these residences will include both the formerly homeless and those facing severe vulnerability of losing their shelter, owing to that specific earnings threshold.
“Some are just holding on ‘by their fingernails,’” said Deacon Jim Vargas, who leads Father Joe’s Villages. “The cost of food, gas, goods and most of all, housing have put many of our neighbors in a precarious state,” Vargas said. “Every affordable home we build is one more person or family that finds stable housing instead of ending up or staying on the streets.”
Joowan Lee, founder of Arete Development, emphasized the regional debut: “We’re introducing mass timber to San Diego. It’s very exciting.” Beyond cost efficiency, the material boasts a lower environmental impact and natural fire resistance, which developers project will lower long-term property insurance premiums.
Construction company oWOW estimates the development could reach completion by the end of 2027, while Father Joe’s conservative estimate for opening the development is March 2028.
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