June 30, 2025

Bellevue church moving forward with affordable housing

Images via Imagine Housing [enlarge]

The new building will have 100 units across four stories.

The DJC reported last spring that St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Bellevue was exploring the possibility of co-developing a large affordable housing project with Imagine Housing at its property at 2650 148th Ave. S.E.

Last week, the church's Congregational Council voted to move ahead with the project. The vote followed several months of pre-development and planning spearheaded by Imagine Housing and a church housing task force created to explore the possibility of bringing affordable housing to the campus. This work also included community and congregational outreach and input.

The plan is to build a four-story, 100-unit building on the east side of the St. Andrew's property on undeveloped land that has never been used, or is underutilized, by the church.

The affordable housing building will be geared toward supporting families with units ranging from studios to three bedrooms. Approximately 21% of the units will be three-bedroom homes. All units will be affordable for households earning between 40% and 60% of area median income.

The total building size is approximately 144,000 square feet. A below-ground parking garage with 80 spaces is also planned, as well as a surface parking lot with 20 spaces.

Community amenities will include an outdoor courtyard with a playground, garden and gathering space and a community room.

[enlarge]

The building is slated for the east side of the St. Andrew’s property on undeveloped land. The church is shown left.

Mithun is now attached as the architect. The architect for the exploratory phase, which kicked off in 2023, was Third Place Design Co-operative.

The design vision for the development emphasizes sustainability, community and accessibility. The project will blend into a surrounding single-family neighborhood through thoughtful design features, such as sufficient parking, green space and community areas, to ensure the development complements the existing character of the neighborhood and nearby assets like Robinswood Park.

Sustainable design principles include tree preservation, stormwater management and green space integration following the Evergreen Design Standard.

Now that the project has been approved, the church will likely sell the land to Imagine Housing, which would then own and operate the new apartment building.

A tentative project timeline posted to Imagine Housing's website has final design and permitting to be completed by the end of next year and construction starting in December 2027 and wrapping in December 2029. A general contractor does not look to be attached at this point.

Imagine Housing says it has not yet determined the sources of capital for the project but expects to use a combination of tax-exempt bond financing for debt, Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits, local and state housing trust funds, philanthropic grants and low interest loans and other public subsidies.

Funding applications are set to go out June 2026 through January 2027.

St. Andrew's says the impetus for the project was a city of Bellevue code change in 2023 that allowed certain properties owned by faith-based organizations to increase their development capacity if they build permanently affordable housing. Saint Andrew's is one of 36 properties that qualify for increased development under these new codes.

When the building opens, likely in early 2030, it will be a full circle moment for Imagine Housing which began in 1987 as St. Andrew's Housing Group. That independent nonprofit organization was established to support the creation of affordable apartment homes on the Eastside and was the first outreach ministry seeded and started by members of Saint Andrew's Lutheran Church.

St. Andrew's Housing Group adopted the name Imagine Housing in 2011. Imagine Housing currently provides permanent affordable housing with support services to over 1,500 low-income individuals in 15 properties on the Eastside.