May 20, 2016

LIHI to build 43-unit Olympia project

Rendering by Bumgardner [enlarge]

Billy Frank Jr. Place, a four-story, 43-unit low-income apartment complex in downtown Olympia, is slated to open in spring 2017.

The Low Income Housing Institute will hold a groundbreaking ceremony at 10:30 a.m. May 27 for Billy Frank Jr. Place, a 43-unit low-income apartment complex at 318 State Ave. N.E. in downtown Olympia.

Bumgardner Architects designed the project and Pavilion Construction will build it.

The team also includes Susan Black & Associates, landscape architect; Swenson Say Faget, structural engineer; and Hatton Godat Pantier, civil engineer.

The four-story building is slated to open in spring 2017, LIHI said in a press release. It is for homeless veterans, disabled people and young adults who are homeless or at risk of becoming so.

It is open to people who earn 30 percent or under of area median income or 50 percent or under of AMI. For one person, 50 percent is $25,800; 30 percent is $15,480.

The building will be near the Olympia Transit Center, parks, schools, shopping, jobs and the waterfront. It will have studio and one- and two-bedroom apartments of between 415 and 944 square feet.

There will also be a group kitchen, computer lab, outdoor seating and gardening areas and on-site case managers. LIHI partners with service providers, including the Veterans Administration, Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, and Community Youth Services.

LIHI bought the property from the City of Olympia.

The project's financing is from the Washington State Housing Trust Fund, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Low Income Housing Tax Credits from Enterprise and the Washington State Housing Finance Commission and a grant from The Employees Community Fund of Boeing. Heritage Bank provided construction financing.

LIHI said the building is named in honor of Native American environmental leader and treaty rights activist Billy Frank Jr., who is known for his campaign for tribal fishing rights in Washington. A member of the Nisqually Tribe, Frank was chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission for 25 years until his death in 2014. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

His son, Willie Frank, will be among the dignitaries at the groundbreaking.