A piece of the Rainier Valley that used to wash other people's laundry is about to become home for hundreds of Seattle families.
Construction started Oct. 15 on the Mount Baker Redevelopment, on a site that once held industrial laundry operations next to the Mount Baker Link light rail station. According to the Seattle Office of Housing, the city is putting $40.6 million into the first phase, which will create 239 affordable rental homes. A second phase will bring the total to more than 400 affordable rentals.
Two nonprofits are leading the housing: El Centro de la Raza and Mercy Housing Northwest. The city is leasing them the land for $1 a year on a 99-year ground lease, and the homes will stay affordable for that full term.
Who will live there
The city says one-third of the homes will serve people earning 0 to 30% of the area median income, and those homes will get ongoing operating, maintenance and services support. Sixty percent of the apartments will have two or more bedrooms, which the city says gives larger families real options in a market where family-sized affordable housing is hard to find.
The homes will also use the city's Community Preference policy. That gives priority to people at risk of being displaced from the neighborhood and to people with ties to the community who want to come back.
The University of Washington's announcement fills in more of the picture. The full redevelopment is a $170 million project, paid for with a mix of state, city and private money, and the two phases will house more than 1,000 people. The project grew out of an eight-year collaboration among the UW College of Education, the city's Office of Housing, the state, Mercy Housing Northwest and El Centro de la Raza.
"The groundbreaking is an important milestone, but it is only the beginning," said Colin Morgan-Cross of Mercy Housing Northwest.
"This development means a life of dignity for families in our community," said Estela Ortega, executive director of El Centro de la Raza.
More than apartments
The site will also hold the Rainier Rising Early Learning Campus, developed by the UW College of Education. The UW says it will be about 35,000 square feet on two floors. The first floor will have eight classrooms for more than 120 children from infancy through preschool, and the second floor will house early learning organizations and adult training. The campus cost about $36 million, on top of the housing budget. The UW says the campus was co-designed with Rainier Valley residents, starting with community conversations in 2018.
The plans also include a 20,000-square-foot open space at the center of the development, a 6,000-square-foot community hub, 4,000 square feet of commercial space for local and BIPOC-owned businesses, and advanced stormwater management.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson called the groundbreaking "a major milestone in bringing a long-envisioned, community-centered project to life."
The UW says the first phase of housing and the early learning campus are scheduled to be finished by 2029.
Why it matters for Contractors
This is a big job, and the team is already named. The UW says Runberg Architecture Group is the architect for the housing, Beacon Development Group is the developer consultant, and Walsh Construction is the builder. Mithun designed the early learning campus, and Walsh is building that too.
For subcontractors, that means the bids run through Walsh. A project this size, with 239 apartments, a 35,000-square-foot early learning campus, commercial space, a community hub and a large public open space, will need nearly every trade over the next few years, from site work and concrete to framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, finishes and landscaping. With Phase 2 still to come, there is more work behind this first round.
The green requirements are worth noting, too. The UW says the development will include advanced stormwater management and beyond-code environmental practices. Subs who have worked on high-performance buildings, or who know their way around stormwater systems, should ask Walsh early what the project will require.
The bigger lesson is about land. The city turned a former laundry site next to a light rail station into a long-term lease for affordable housing. If more public land gets used this way, there will be more of this kind of work across Seattle.