August 28, 2017

Capitol Hill Housing joins the team developing 23rd & Union

Photo by Kidder Matthews [enlarge]

CHH will partner with Africatown to develop affordable housing on part of the 2.4-acre MidTown Center block.

The team that is redeveloping a full block at 23rd Avenue and East Union Street is changing.

In May, Lake Union Partners paid the Bangasser family $23 million for the 2.4 acres, generally called MidTown Center. The firm announced that Forterra and Africatown Community Land Trust would be its partners in building affordable housing on the south end of the block, facing Spring Street.

Capitol Hill Housing is now stepping in. CHH's Jeremy Wilkening said, “We are going to become partners with Africatown. Forterra is stepping out. Forterra will assign its interest to us.”

In announcing the sale in May, Lake Union Partners had said it would sell the smaller south parcel to Forterra and Africatown. Now, said Wilkening, that ownership will be “51 percent Capitol Hill Housing and 49 percent Africatown.” The sale could come as soon as October.

CHH and architect Weinstein A + U recently filed plans for what is now called Africatown Plaza, at 2314 E. Spring St. The proposal is for a seven-story, mixed-use building with up to 130 units, no parking, about 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, and other amenity and support spaces. A roof deck is planned.

Wilkening said that Africatown might lease the retail space.

All of the units will be permanently affordable, priced at 30 to 60 percent of area median income.

Total project area, including the basement, is estimated at 120,600 square feet. The Africatown Plaza site is 23,394 square feet, or about 22 percent of the block.

In July, Lake Union Partners filed plans for the north parcel at 2301 E. Union St. The proposal is for a seven-story, mixed-use building with about 432 units, 280 underground parking spaces and 27,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. A grocery store has long been sought for the fast-growing Union Street corridor.

Total project size will be about 434,000 square feet, on a 82,860-square-foot site.

About 125 units will be affordable, under terms of the city's Mandatory Housing Affordability and Multi-Family Tax Exemption programs. The latter provisions expire after a dozen years.

The whole block is being designed by Weinstein A + U, with consulting architect Donald King (formerly of DKA Architects, the firm he sold seven years ago). Lake Union Partners' Pat Foley said the north side is still called MidTown Center for now, though that may change.

On the north parcel, the team also includes HAL Real Estate, financial partner; Coughlin Porter & Lundeen, structural engineer; KPFF, civil engineer; Rushing Co., mechanical and electrical engineer; Berger Partnership, landscape architect; and Vida Design, interiors design. No general contractor has been selected.

The Africatown Plaza team will include some of the same partners, but with additional minority contractors likely, according to CHH. Funding will come from the Seattle Office of Housing and other sources. Wilkening said the two projects will likely overlap, but not share the same timeline. Community meetings for both projects will begin this fall.

Foley anticipates both projects will be presented jointly at an initial design review meeting in October or November.

Wilkening said he expects that Africatown Plaza will break ground in late 2019.

Separately, CHH is starting the 115-unit Liberty Bank Building, at 2320 E. Union St., with Africatown as an advisor.

CHH was founded in 1976, and develops and manages affordable housing, with 48 buildings that house around 2,000 renters.

Africatown is an educational and advocacy nonprofit, and has not developed real estate.

Lake Union Partners has other nearby projects — The Stencil, The Central and East Union — that total about 277 units, plus retail space.