February 27, 2015

Plymouth Housing plans 83 units on First Hill

Rendering courtesy of SMR Architects [enlarge]

SMR Architects is designing the project at Seventh and Cherry for Plymouth Housing Group. It is slated to open in March 2017.

Plymouth Housing Group will start construction in January on 83 apartments for formerly homeless people on First Hill, near an area under Interstate 5 where people now sleep at night.

SMR Architects is designing the project for Seventh Avenue and Cherry Street. It is slated to open in March 2017.

The units will all be studios averaging 300 square feet. They will be open to single adults who make at or below 30 percent of area median income, or $18,550 for an individual.

The site is sloped and the building will be seven stories at its tallest.

There will be a roof deck, a rain garden on the Cherry Street side and three staff parking spaces off the alley. Three live-in case managers and a visiting nurse will work with residents, and the front office will have 24-hour staffing.

The project will be built to Evergreen Development Standards.

Because of the slope, the elevator and other mechanical systems will be partially underground. The entry for office and community spaces will be on Seventh Avenue, with apartments on floors two through seven.

Plymouth is a Seattle-based nonprofit developer with over 1,000 housing units in 14 buildings. Most of its tenants are single adults who had been homeless for years.

Paul Lambros, Plymouth executive director, said homeless people can better deal with their problems when they have a roof over their head and supportive services — and this costs the community less in the long term.

“By getting them into housing, you can deal with some of the issues that they are facing on the street,” he said.

Lambros said the Seventh and Cherry building will cost $21 million. The city contributed $7.3 million, the state $1.5 million and King County $600,000. Plymouth expects to get about $11 million in federal low-income housing tax credits, and will make up the remainder of the project cost.

Plymouth paid $2.3 million for the 9,600-square-foot property at 710 Cherry St. The seller is 710 Building Associates, a general partnership with 710 Cherry St. as its mailing address. An older office building there will be demolished.

Lambros said Plymouth may have gotten the property for less because of the slope.

He said Plymouth likes First Hill because it has a number of medical providers and there is a growing need for medical care for chronically homeless people.

Plymouth likes to develop buildings with 70 to 100 apartments, Lambros said, because they are more affordable to operate than those with fewer units, given the on-site staffing.

The project team also includes Decker Consulting Engineers, civil engineer; Fazio Associates, landscape architect; Glumac, mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer; SSA Acoustics, acoustical engineer; and I.L. Gross Structural Engineers.