Spokane nonprofit looking for viable building sites
The idea of developing new multifamily affordable rental housing in the Methow Valley is still being explored by Spokane Housing Ventures, which will host a meeting on Friday (Feb. 2) at the Methow Valley Community Center in Twisp for interested community members.
“We’re actively vetting several site candidates” for a multifamily housing development, said Dave Roberts, senior developer for Spokane Housing Ventures. “There are three sites, maybe even a fourth.”
At Friday’s meeting, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in Room 7 at the community center, information about the potential sites will be shared, Roberts said.
In December, representatives of Spokane Housing Ventures came to the Methow Valley to present a proposal to purchase and convert the Idle-A-While Motel on the north end of Twisp into affordable housing. That plan has since been dropped because a grant needed to fund the project was not awarded, Roberts said.
The proposal was questioned by some local elected officials and business owners who said they were concerned about the loss of commercially zoned property in Twisp, which would result if the motel property were rezoned for residential use.
Spokane Housing Ventures is a Spokane-based nonprofit organization that develops and manages housing for people with limited incomes throughout Washington, including two apartment complexes in the Methow Valley — Riverview Apartments in Twisp and Cedarwood Apartments in Winthrop.
The organization wants to develop more affordable housing in the Methow Valley to address needs outlined in a 2016 report on housing in the valley, Roberts said. That report found that there are not enough rental units for people on limited incomes. “There is a significant need,” Roberts said.
Creating additional housing also makes sense from a management standpoint, he said. Spokane Housing Ventures currently employs a manager for Riverview and Cedarwood apartments with a total of 32 units. Another complex of 20-30 units could also be managed by the current manager.
“We would be serving a population that has needs as well as making our operation as efficient as possible,” Roberts said. “That is our business, to preserve and create new units.”
Looking at sites
Spokane Housing Ventures has been working with a local Realtor to look for property that could be developed for affordable housing. The organization had a purchase agreement for the Idle-A-While Motel that was contingent on acquiring financing through a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB), which supports affordable housing projects.
Spokane Housing Ventures learned in December that the grant from FHLB was not awarded, and the housing organization no longer has the motel property under contract, Roberts said. However, he said, the bank provided “important guidance on their priorities that should help us submit a 2018 application,” he said.
“We remain optimistic that the Methow Valley will be an area where we can identify and initiate a multifamily development project, whether new construction or renovation of an existing property.”
Roberts said Spokane Housing Ventures will consider property in the Twisp or Winthrop area, and hopes to learn more about what the community wants at Friday’s meeting.
“We want to be sensitive to the community’s concerns, but alert to whether the property will succeed in getting a funding award,” he said. Roberts said the organization is looking at both vacant land and property with structures that could be moved, demolished or renovated.
He and other representatives of Spokane Housing Ventures planned to come to the Methow Valley on Thursday (Feb. 1) to look at potential sites.
While some community members had specific concerns about the Idle-A-While proposal during the December meeting with Spokane Housing Ventures, the general need for more affordable housing was widely acknowledged. Local housing advocates said they would welcome the experience and expertise of Spokane Housing Ventures in creating more affordable housing in the Methow Valley.
The proposal for the Idle-A-While was to provide housing to people earning 50 percent of the Okanogan County median income or less. In 2017 the annual median income was $49,000 for a four-person family.
