April 29, 2015

LIHI plans apartments in downtown Olympia

Rendering courtesy of Bumgardner [enlarge]

Low Income Housing Institute plans to start construction in November on 43 apartments in a four-story building in downtown Olympia.

The site is at 318 State Ave. N.E.

Bumgardner is the architect for the building, which is expected to be complete in late 2016.

LIHI has narrowed the search for a general contractor to CDK Construction Services, Pavilion Construction and Buchanan General Contracting Co., and will interview them in the coming weeks.

The units will house disabled people and well as homeless veterans and youth. The studios and one- and two-bedroom units range from 394 to 844 square feet.

The complex will have a kitchen, computer bank, classroom, management office and a garden.

LIHI said in a press release that Olympia City Council agreed to sell the vacant parcel for $100,000. LIHI had intended to build the project on a Columbia Street site in downtown Olympia, but said the city asked it to take the less costly site on State Avenue.

Olympia City Manager Steve Hall said Olympia is trying to redevelop the downtown. He said the Columbia Street property is close to the waterfront and Percival Landing Park, and has more potential for market-rate housing or mixed use than the State Avenue property, which the city bought eight years ago for a parking garage that did not pan out.

Hall said the city offered LIHI the below-market price for the State Avenue property, which is near the transit center, to get development going there.

LIHI's project will cost $11.7 million. It will be open to people making 30 percent of the area median income, which for one person is $15,030.

About $8.2 million from the sale of Low Income Housing Tax Credits and $3 million from the Washington State Housing Trust Fund will be used to fund the project.

LIHI develops affordable housing in the Northwest. It owns or manages over 1,700 housing units in the Puget Sound region.