The opening of Blake House marks the city’s first high-rise affordable housing project in half a century.
Two new affordable housing communities, Blake House and The Rise on Madison, are opening in Seattle this spring, adding more than 350 new units to the city’s housing stock, reports Marc Stiles explains in the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Apartments at Blake House, developed by Plymouth Housing, are reserved for 55-and-ver veterans making less than 30 percent of area median income (AMI), and will include on-site health services. “Plymouth's partner on the $150 million tower — Seattle's first affordable high-rise development by a nonprofit in 50 years — is Bellwether Housing, Seattle's largest nonprofit provider of affordable housing and the operator of the 250-unit Rise on Madison.”
Units in The Rise will be available to residents making 50 to 60 percent of AMI, with rents ranging from $1,600 to $1,900. According to Stiles, “Various factors allowed the building to pencil, from the nonprofits contributing equity and Sound Transit donating the development site to the building not having costly parking, plus efficiencies derived from having one set of building systems for two projects.”
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