April 21, 2015

Eight low-income housing projects planned

Rendering courtesy of SAGE Architectural Alliance [enlarge]

Construction is slated to start in July on Providence Redmond Senior Housing.

The Washington State Housing Finance Commission approved $77 million in low-income housing tax credit financing for eight affordable housing projects in the state.

The financing will help create or renovate 575 affordable apartments in projects in south Seattle, Redmond, Tacoma, Spokane, Olympia and rural Othello.

The Puget Sound region projects are:

• The first phase of Mercy Othello Plaza West at 6930 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. across from Othello light-rail station in south Seattle. Mercy Housing Northwest is developing this 40-unit project. Ankrom Moisan is the architect and Walsh is the contractor.

• Providence Redmond Senior Housing at 8550 160th Avenue N.E. in Redmond. Providence Health & Services plans to start construction in July on the project, which will have 74 independent apartments for seniors and a PACE senior health center. The architect is SAGE Architectural Alliance and the contractor is Walsh Construction Co.

• The Winthrop at 776 Commerce St. in Tacoma. Redwood Housing Partners will renovate the dilapidated Winthrop, which was built in 1925 as the city's flagship hotel and converted to 194 affordable apartments in 1972.

The Seattle, Redmond and Tacoma projects will get an estimated $8.5 million, $16 million and $12.2 million in tax-credit equity, respectively. The commission also approved $28 million in a tax-exempt note for the Tacoma project.

Developers sell tax credits to investors who use them to lower their taxable income. Tax exempt notes are similar to a bond, which is sold to finance a project.