Manteca’s 21st century apartment row — envisioned in the 2000 general plan — will be completed by mid-2018.
Work started this week on the 164-unit Tesoro Apartments at Atherton Drive and Van Ryn Avenue. It is being built between the 293-unit Paseo Villas that features Manteca’s priciest apartment at $1,980 a month and the subsidized workforce housing of the 153-unit Juniper Apartments that has a waiting list of nearly 300 people waiting for an apartment to become available.
While Paseo Villas and Juniper Apartments exteriors are virtual kissing cousins and undistinguishable from Atherton Drive despite one being a luxury complex and the other being designed for renters making up to 125 percent of Manteca’s median income with accompanying eligibility rules, Tesoro Apartments will feature a more modern look. It will still employ earth tone exterior colors to blend in with the neighborhood.
It also is being designed with millennial renters in mind. To that end, besides a community center and swimming pool along with a tot lot it will feature a built-in dog wash area as well as a bicycle repair shop for tenants to access. The community center will also have solar panels to generate electricity. It will also feature an outdoor living area adjacent to the swimming pool.
The project will have decorative wrought iron fencing with automatic gates to provide enhanced security.
Apartment units will range in size from 735 to 1,295 square feet. That compares to Paseo Villas that range from 737 to 1,292 square feet. The only carpet will be in bedrooms and closets while the rest of the flooring will employ laminate wood-style planks. It will include quartz style countertops among other touches.
There are 14 main apartment buildings ranging from one to three stories. There will be six structures with 66 individual garages for parking as well as 154 covered spaces
It will include a bus stop along Van Ryn Avenue.
There will be three gated access points — two are for emergency access while just one will be for residents and guests. The entry will be along Atherton midway between the Juniper Apartments and Van Ryn Avenue. One emergency gate can be accessed from the western entrance driveway to the Juniper Apartments complex. The other will be on Van Ryn Avenue just before the 120 Bypass underpass.
 The bicycle repair facility is a nod to a growing trend of younger tenants to use bicycles for recreation, fitness, and to use as an alternative to cars such as to go shopping, visit places such as the library or commute to work or transit stations.
The Tesoro site fronts an existing separated bicycle path with mature landscaping.
It connects to a system of other separated bicycle paths that can take riders to Woodward Park via Wellington Avenue, as well as shopping and restaurants via Spreckels Avenue. It also connects to the Tidewater to reach Manteca High, the Manteca Transit Center over a mile away, downtown, the library, Northgate Park, and Del Webb at Woodbridge. If a future resident at Tesoro worked at Crothall Laundry or the 5.11 Tactical distribution center now under construction, they could cover the 5 mile plus distance on a separated bicycle path and only cross streets only 13 times.
The complex is being built in one phase. It represents nearly a $30 million investment by Manteca developers Mike Atherton and Al Boyce. It will be managed by The Garibaldi Company. It is the same firm that manages Paseo Villas.
The overall construction is expected to take eight months. When competed there will be 610 apartments in three complexes along Atherton Drive split almost evenly by Van Ryn Avenue.
The 2000 general plan called for high density housing or apartments along the 120 Bypass bordering a four lane Atherton Drive with medians and left turn pockets, and extensive sound wall landscaping to serve as a buffer for single family homes and the freeway.
This is the third Manteca apartment complex Atherton has been a partner in developing. The others are Paseo Villas and Park Place.

Manteca apartment
unit starts at 191
for 2017 so far
Two other small apartment projects are currently under construction in Manteca,
One is the 8-unit Villa Capri apartments being built on a previous vacant parcel plus where an existing house was in the 200 block of North Fremont where it T-intersects with Pine Street between Center and Fir streets.
The other consists of 19 apartments that’s an extension an extension of Vista Verde Apartments on Eastwood Avenue where it curves across the street from Manteca Rehab.
The Villa Capri Apartments will consist of two separate two-story buildings featuring four two-bedroom apartments on each floor.
The Vista Verde addition has five buildings including one being used as an office and storage. It will consist of three bedroom and two bedroom apartment units.
The two infill apartments when coupled with the Tesoro project will bring the number of units started this year to 191.
This marks the first time in more than a dozen years that at-market apartments have been built in Manteca. The last at-market complex built was Paseo Villas.
There have been two other complexes built since then — the Juniper Apartments and the Magnolia Court apartments for low-income seniors on Grant Street behind Dribble’s Car Wash. Both complexes are rent subsidized.