MidPen Housing moves forward with new plans for site once tangled up in fall of developer SiliconSage

After five years of litigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and bankruptcy, and subsequent ownership changes, it may be possible to redevelop 42021 Osgood Road into housing.

According to plans submitted by the city in April, MidPen Housing, a non-profit developer, has proposed building 235 homes on the Osgood Road property near the site of the Irvington BART Station. The property was a part of the portfolio owned by SiliconSage Builders, LLC, Sunnyvale based development company that, along with founder Sanjeev Acharya, was charged by the SEC with defrauding its investors at the end 2020.

SiliconSage declared bankruptcy and had its portfolio taken into receivership by the SEC. The SEC claimed that Silicon Sage had raised $119 million in investment from 250 investors who believed they were investing in a successful development company. The SEC claimed that only one of the many projects undertaken by the company had ever been profitable. Acharya used the money received from investors to pay back those to whom he did not have any profits to distribute. SiliconSage, Acharya and the SEC reached a partial settlement in 2021.

Property records indicate that MidPen purchased 42021 and 42065 Osgood Road in the fall 2021 for $13.5 Million. Both parcels were owned by SiliconSage. According to the city, the developer received $14 million for the acquisition of the property and its "predevelopment".

MidPen was unable to comment on Friday. MidPen's application, which lists the 42021 address, and the parcel size of two acres (42021 Osgood only) indicates that the city did not expect MidPen develop both properties.

The Mountain View nonprofit, which manages or owns 8,000 affordable housing units in Northern California is looking to build Osgood Family Housing, a six-story building that will feature a mixture of one, two, and three-bedroom apartment types. According to the developer, it will have 267 parking phases. It will be constructed in two phases. HCL Architecture is the project's architect.

SiliconSage started looking at the Osgood Property for redevelopment as early as 2017. By 2018, the company was working actively on a project of 288 units to replace the existing commercial buildings and parking lot. City records indicate that the city of Fremont had been processing the project until the fall 2020. This was a few month before the SEC imposed changes against Acharya.