The Grove at Johnston Park

North Sacramento, CA

Year built: 1960 Year acquired: 1990

The Grove was a distressed apartment complex in North Sacramento adjacent to a beautiful city park with a pool called Johnston Park. In order to acquire the property, Bruce took out a loan with the CA Department of Housing that covered the purchase price and enough money to rehabilitate the property. Bruce made an agreement with the city that he would operate the property for the benefit of low income residents for the next 30 years and, that’s exactly what he did.

The property has been upgraded from a D-grade property to a B-grade property. New appliances, new dual pane windows, and even a new roof has been installed. Bruce has also responded to the needs of the residents in a variety of creative ways. The residents had been storing many of their belongings on the balcony and corridors of the complex and this was becoming an eyesore and a fire hazard. Rather than threatening the tenants with evictions, Bruce found an unused section of the property and put down a row of storage units for his tenants. No one seems to complain when Bruce asks them to move their belongings into their personal storage unit, a rare and much appreciated commodity.

Another such situation arose when there seemed to be a shortage of parking spaces. Bruce was able to make a deal with the city to purchase the adjacent abandoned land, which ended up serving the dual purpose of doubling parking and cutting down on crime in the area which you can read more about in this Sacramento Bee article.

Today the property consistently maintains full occupancy, thanks to the multilingual, multi-talented, hard working Somboune “Sam” Rasaphangthong , the Property Manager. Together Bruce and Sam are planning exciting improvements for 2020, which include new modern porches and two new courtyards, which you can read about in our press release.