A joint venture of Nitze-Stagen and Co. and Housing Diversity Corp. has broken ground on Atrium Court, a 271-unit affordable housing community in Seattle. Neiman Taber Architects designed the project and STS Construction serves as general contractor. Karen Kiest Landscape Architects is also part of the development team. Completion is expected in mid-2026.
The majority equity investor in the project is a joint venture of Allivate Impact Capital and CEI-Boulos Capital Management which provided $15 million in equity financing. The financing package also includes a $41 million primary loan from Trez Capital and a $16 million 20-year low-interest note from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund.
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The property will rise eight stories and comprise one- and two-bedroom floorplans, as well as some 2,300 square feet of ground-floor retail, according to Yardi Matrix data. Of the total 271 units, 59 percent will cater to households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income, 10 percent will be income-restricted at 60 percent of AMI and 5 percent will be income-restricted at 50 percent of AMI. Affordability requirements have a term of 99 years.
The building is set to feature various sustainability features such as stormwater management, a 33-kilowatt roof-mounted solar array, compost collection and heating systems not dependent on fossil fuels.
Affordable developments in Seattle
Located at 7324 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., in an Opportunity Zone, the site is some 7 miles south of downtown Seattle. The property is within walking distance of the Othello train stop and also less than 4 miles from the King County International Airport – Boeing Field and the Museum of Flight.
In 2023’s first three quarters, developers added 3,613 to the Seattle market, roughly a third of which were in fully affordable communities, according to a recent Yardi Matrix report. As of September, the metro’s development pipeline totaled 32,059 units, of which 19.2 percent represented income-restricted projects.