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The Portland Housing Bureau has chosen Bridge Housing to build 61 new affordable apartments for low-income residents in the Eliot neighborhood, the nonprofit developer announced Monday.

The four-story North Williams Center, designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects, will form a 鈥淯鈥� shape around a central courtyard. Ground is expected to be broken on the $18.3 million project in mid-2017.

Apartments will range from one to three bedrooms.

City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, in a prepared statement, said Bridge Housing has taken a 鈥渢houghtful approach鈥� to community stability with the project.

Cynthia Parker, Bridge Housing’s president and CEO, said many longtime residents have been priced out and displaced from the Northeast Portland neighborhood.

Bridge said it plans to retain Albertina Kerr, a nonprofit that provides on-site services, to expand art and garden programs to residents.

The project comes as city officials make a major push for affordable housing. Last month, the City Council referred a $258 million housing bond to the November ballot.

The property at 2124-2146 N. Williams Ave. has a long history of shifting uses. Multnomah County acquired the property in 2013. Before that, it had served since 1998 as the site of Port City Development Center, a vocational training center for developmentally disabled clients.

In other periods, the site over nearly three decades had served as an industrial battery manufacturing and recycling center, an upholstery company and a lounge chair manufacturer, according to a Multnomah County report.

The property is approximately 50,000 square feet.