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A Southeast Portland superblock currently home to a church and a park will soon be developed into affordable housing.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services on Friday announced that developers have requested a design advice meeting with the Design Commission for a proposed four-story building on the southern portion of a superblock bound by Southeast Stark Street and 11th and 12th avenues. St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and the St. Francis Dining Hall are on the northern end of the superblock.

In September, Home Forward announced that the Portland Housing Bureau awarded $6.5 million toward the $20 million project, St. Francis Park, via its Notice of Funding Availability competitive process. The project also is getting $7.l million of Low Income Housing Tax Credit equity, a $2.1 million permanent loan, $1.1 million from Home Forward and a land purchase loan provided by St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church.

The 80,000-square-foot building will hold 102 apartments – 73 studios, 28 one-bedroom units and one two-bedroom unit – on the upper three floors, a garden that will supply produce for the soup kitchen in St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church to the north, an internal central plaza and shared garden space.

Ten of the units will be reserved for households earning 30 percent of Portland’s median family income ($14,300 for a single occupant) or less. The remainder of the units will be rented to people earning 60 percent of Portland’s median family income ($29,160 for one person or $41,640 for a family of four) or less.

Additionally, 10 of the units are expected to house homeless women with children who have experienced domestic violence.

The development will also include 36 below-grade parking spaces and bike parking on the ground level.

The project will be a partnership between St. Francis Parish, Home Forward and Catholic Charities.