637 days. That’s how long it took between when the ceremonial shovels went into the ground until the ribbon was cut to officially open the Mainline North affordable apartment community at 2310 Calle Del Mundo in Santa Clara.

“Mainline North is part of the City of Santa Clara Tasman East Specific Plan. It’s an entirely new community, a new neighborhood, 45 acres, transit-oriented,” said Jay Stark, a principal at Pinyon Group, one of the main developers behind the Mainline North project. “When completed, there will be over 6,000 units, probably about 10,000 people.

“It isn’t very often, as developers, community builders, city leaders that we really have a chance to build a new neighborhood within a city and one that provides so many benefits,” continued Stark. “We have housing at all income levels. It’s transit-oriented, with new job centers and an abundance of public parks and amenities.” 

Developed by USA Properties Fund and the Pinyon Group, Mainline North has 151 new affordable housing units spread out over studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom apartments. All of the units serve residents making 30 to 70% of the area median income.

For Petherson Messias, a Mainline North resident who works in the tech industry but still doesn’t make enough to afford a market-rate apartment without multiple roommates, Mainline North means peace of mind.

“The main difference and the thing that I liked the most about this place is that it changed my mindset, my mental mindset now is I can take a breather,” said Messias, who moved into his apartment in August. “I can now focus on work. I can focus on learning more skills, honing those skills professionally, so I can grow at work because I have stable housing at an affordable price.”

While labeled as affordable housing, Mainline North comes with a luxury feel. Tenants have multiple shared spaces for extracurricular activities. There’s an arts and crafts room, a fitness center complete with treadmills and weight machines, a fourth-floor patio with outdoor ping pong tables and BBQ space, as well as a Wi-Fi room for the residents who work from home.

As for parking, to help preserve space while still providing plenty of parking for residents, Mainline North includes a three-story car sorter operated by Trivial. A representative from the company, Ernesto, was on hand to explain exactly how the car sorters work.

“They [residents] call their parking space [using a key fob]. The equipment will handle the space, bring it down, open the gate,” said Ernesto. “The person parks. They leave. Close the gate, and they can basically walk [away]. Retrieval time is somewhere between 30 seconds to 45 seconds, depending on the space they drive. 

“They’re queueable,” continued Ernesto. “Five people can fill in this space. They just have to wait for the next person to come over.”

The bottom “floor” of the car stacker includes EV charging stations for electric vehicles. Residents are assigned parking spots, and the key fob works only for their assigned parking space. 

There is no typical resident of Mainline North. They’re all ages and from all industries. Some are married with children, others are single. The residents were recommended through a variety of programs, including Home First, the VA Department, Santa Clara Housing Authority and Section 8. 

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