City to Close Affordable-Housing Loophole in Midway Rising Arena Deal
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New language in the proposed Midway Rising redevelopment agreement would close a loophole that the city's own Independent Budget Analyst identified as a significant risk — one that could have allowed up to 800 of the project's promised 2,000 affordable apartments to be claimed by units built elsewhere. The full City Council is set to hear the deal Monday.
Under the original agreement, Midway Rising could have counted affordable units that other developers were already obligated to build as part of their own projects toward its own committed total. The revised Section 15.4 would prevent that automatic transfer; any such arrangement would now require explicit city approval and state clearance. The Independent Budget Analyst estimated that between 200 and 800 units from other developments could otherwise have flowed into the Midway Rising count — a range representing 10% to 40% of the entire affordable-housing commitment.
The full scope of the project underscores the stakes. The proposed development includes 4,254 homes in total, with the 2,000 low-income units among them, a replacement arena at 16,000 seats, 130,000 square feet of commercial space, 8.1 acres of parks, and 6.4 acres of plazas and public space. The proposed lease runs 105 years, with a projected lifetime city rent of $896.3 million — though the present-value figure discounts that to $23.2 million, illustrating how far out those revenues extend.
Monday's hearing is a threshold moment but not a final vote — it is a full council consideration of a pending agreement. Whoever the new council members turn out to be after certification will walk into the November 9 hearing with a major public-land decision almost immediately before them, against a backdrop of roughly $7.8 billion in deferred city infrastructure.