August 27, 2026

Lessons from multifamily: How proven development discipline is shaping better affordable and senior housing

Solem

For years, affordable and senior housing was treated as its own specialized corner of real estate development — distinct enough from market-rate multifamily that experience in one rarely seemed to translate to the other.

That thinking is changing, and developers who have spent decades building multifamily communities are finding the fundamentals that made those projects successful — disciplined preconstruction and cost management, realistic scheduling, and a sharp focus on resident experience — apply just as directly, and just as powerfully, to affordable and senior housing. In recent years, these project types have been concentrated near Transit-Oriented Development sites due to our region’s tremendous transportation infrastructure growth.

WHERE THE TWO WORLDS MEET

Affordable housing comes with its own layer of complexity: layered financing, tax credit compliance, public agency coordination, and long approval timelines that market-rate projects often don’t face. But the core development skill set — accurately underwriting a deal, efficiently sequencing construction, managing subcontractor relationships, and designing units that hold up over decades of daily use — is not unique to any one product type. It’s the same discipline that separates a well-executed multifamily project from a struggling one.

Exxel Pacific has built that discipline over nearly 40 years of experience in multifamily construction across the Pacific Northwest and has applied it directly to affordable and senior housing projects with strong results. The lesson has been consistent: developers who bring rigorous preconstruction, cost control, and construction know-how to affordable and senior housing tend to deliver projects that come in on budget, on schedule, maintain quality, hold up structurally, and financially thrive over the long term. This matters enormously in a segment where every dollar saved in construction is a dollar that can go toward serving residents.

TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT RAISES THE STAKES

Photo by Michael Walmsley Photography [enlarge]

St. Luke’s is an affordable housing development in Ballard.

That discipline becomes even more important as affordable and senior housing increasingly moves toward transit-oriented development (TOD) sites. TOD projects often mean tighter urban parcels, more complex site logistics, and higher public scrutiny — all factors that reward developers with strong project management fundamentals.

A team accustomed to navigating the tight sequencing and site constraints of urban multifamily construction is well positioned to handle the added complexity that comes with building near transit corridors, where construction staging, community impact, and coordination with public agencies all carry more weight.

PROOF IN RECENT PROJECTS

In partnership with a long-time client, Exxel recently completed construction on Ondina, a transit-adjacent mixed-use apartment project located in the BelRed corridor directly across from Sound Transit’s BelRed/130th Link Light Rail station. This development posed many challenges and required consistent collaboration with the city of Bellevue and Sound Transit, resulting in a team well-equipped for the next TOD project.

Exxel also recently celebrated the completion of two multifamily projects in Shoreline, The Line and Verdant, situated on the same block as the city of Shoreline’s 145th Street Corridor Project, which includes light rail access and improved travel to the nearby Sound Transit Shoreline South/148th Station.

A third project recently broke ground in this location called Leeway, situated adjacent to the 148th Street non-motorized bridge that will provide direct access to the Pinehurst infill Link light rail station that’s expectedto be complete in September. These developments are poised to further transform the area, offering residents unparalleled access to transit, and contributing to the community’s growth and vitality.

Exxel Pacific has completed several affordable housing projects, with more currently under construction and in the pipeline. The St. Luke’s affordable housing project in Ballard is situated near the RapidRide bus corridor. The project consists of 84 affordable housing units and meets Evergreen Sustainability Development standards.

Photo by Christophe Servieres (Shot2Sell) [enlarge]

Ondina is a mixed-use, multifamily TOD in Bellevue’s BelRed neighborhood.

Another ongoing affordable project in Bellevue will provide 234 units, and the site is adjacent to Sound Transit’s Operations and Maintenance Facility East, which required close collaboration with project stakeholders, including the developer, design team, the City of Bellevue, and Sound Transit.

Parkshore Juanita Bay is a prime example of a TOD senior housing community, minimizing vehicle reliance through immediate proximity to multimodal transit options. By placing high-density independent senior housing directly adjacent to public transit, the Parkshore project utilizes infrastructure that functions as an urban village.

These positive outcomes aren’t accidents. They reflect a development approach shaped by years of multifamily experience — one that treats affordable and senior housing not as a fundamentally different product, but as a multifamily development that is enhancing communities with an additional layer of financial and regulatory complexity that rewards strong teams.

INNOVATION IN THE INDUSTRY

As demand for affordable and senior housing continues to outpace supply across the region, there’s a real opportunity for industry leaders with strong multifamily backgrounds to step into this space — whether as general contractors, development partners, or consultants to organizations navigating their first affordable project. The barriers to entry are real, but they are not insurmountable, and the industry needs more experienced hands willing to bring that discipline to bear.

The path forward for affordable, senior and TOD housing likely won’t come from reinventing development practices from scratch. It will come from applying what already works — proven multifamily discipline — to a segment of housing that needs it more than ever.

Eric Solem is a regional vice president for Exxel Pacific who specializes in affordable, senior, and transit-oriented development projects.

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