$55M Earmarked for Puget Sound Affordable Housing

Everett, Wash.—KeyBank’s Community Development Lending & Investing group has provided $54.5 million to construct 256 4-percent LIHTC units at Puget Park, a fully affordable multifamily housing development in Everett, Wash.

“The appeal is extremely broad. It will be brand new construction in an area where there isn’t that much, and its location is a huge part of what will draw people there,” Victoria Quinn, vice president & senior relationship manager with KeyBank’s Community Development Lending group, told MHN. “It is convenient to public transportation, there’s a grocery store, drug store and other shopping and services within a half a mile, and there’s great proximity to the freeways.”

The community is located 30 miles north of Seattle and will serve residents who earn 60 percent or less of the area median income.

“It’s also in a very good school district, and the school is less than a mile away,” Quinn said. “More and more we are finding people at that wage level being pushed out of the city of Seattle and they absolutely deserve as nice a place to live as anyone else.”

Planned amenities for the property include a community garden, a dog-run, a pool, hot tub and a clubhouse with a community room, full kitchen, game room, business center, conference space and a basketball court and exercise room.

“This property absolutely fits within the Key Bank model. It’s affordable housing in an area in the midst of an affordable housing crisis,” Quinn said. “We are working on expanding our presence in the Puget Sound region right now and this fits the bill.”

The Puget Sound region, because of its economic and population growth in the last five-10 years, has a great demand for affordable housing.

“In this particular market, comparable affordable projects in the Everett area had vacancy in the third quarter of last year of below 1 percent,” Quinn said. “That’s pretty consistent throughout the Puget Sound region.”