A low-interest loan from the city to a Sausalito developer

gained the final OK Tuesday from the Tracy City Council.

The council, acting as the Tracy Community Development

Agency, agreed to loan nearly $2 million to Dawson Holdings Inc. It is part of

a $10.1 million public financing package the developer needs to buy and improve

the Village Garden Apartments at the corner of Ninth and East streets.

Tracy’s share comes from the city’s redevelopment agency,

which collects a portion of property taxes from parts of town where this type

of restoration work has taken place. The state requires that part of that money

be reserved for low-income housing.

The 88 apartments in the complex are reserved for senior

citizens who use Section 8 vouchers to help pay their rent. Under Section 8,

renters pay 30 of their incomes, and the federal Department of Housing and

Urban Development pays the rest, based on a contract between HUD and the property

owner.

In the past year, the Village Garden Apartments have been

plagued by code violations. This summer the city ordered the present owner,

Wainwright Company No. 1 of Lodi, to repair stairways, rotted trim, damaged

roofs and rotted wood around electrical and gas meters.

Dawson specializes in restoring complexes like this, and

bought and restored the 72-unit Tracy Village Apartments next door to the

Village Garden Apartments. The city expects that about $2.4 million of its

total financing package will be used just for repairs and upgrades. The loan

agreement requires that DHI begin restoration work in February and complete

restoration by the end of March 2008.