Downtown Bakersfield is about to get another new housing development. Officials including Mayor Harvey Hall are celebrating the groundbreaking of the 17th Place Townhomes.
Project manager Austin Smith says the 3 story, 44-unit complex is the first market rate luxury housing development in downtown Bakersfield in years.
Austin Smith: There's a boom in downtown housing across the country, and it's just beginning in the Central Valley. And we believe that Bakersfield is ready for it, because the demographics are right. The Millennial generation wants to live downtown and wants to have walkability and access to services and nightlife, and employment centers and all those sorts of things that you can access in a downtown, and that demand hasn't really been met yet in the market as it stands."
Smith is a partner in the development with his father, Bakersfield City Council Member Bob Smith. The project is located on 17th Street between N and O Streets, one block north of the Rabobank Arena. The team hopes to finish construction in about 14 months.