Portland’s largest single-building affordable housing project in 50 years is rising quickly in Lloyd, where it is sure to stand out.

Designed by Lever Architecture and LRS Architects, the 12-story, 240-unit Grand Avenue Apartments (also known as ) project is owned by Home Forward. Crews broke ground late last year and are expected to finish by October 2019. And as the city continues to suffer a serious housing crunch, the building will provide low-income inner eastside residents with the most new affordable units since the 286-unit Hollywood East building opened in 1969.

Oregon’s tax code led Home Forward to devote the entire project to affordable housing.

“When we first conceptualized this building we thought we would likely develop a mixed-income building, and we could not make it pencil,” Home Forward senior project manager Julie Livingston said. “And the thing about affordable housing units is they do not pay property taxes.”

That, she said, is “a huge benefit to the operations budget.”

The decision to designate all units affordable “in no way changed what the building looks like,” said Jonathan Trutt, director of development and community services for Home Forward. “It didn’t change the interiors at all, but it changed the rents we were going to charge.”

217 units in the building will be reserved for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of median family income, and 23 will be reserved for households with incomes at or below 50 percent of median family income. Of the latter units, 20 will be assigned Section 8 project-based vouchers to assist with rental subsidy for individuals recovering from domestic violence. Service partners include the Multnomah County Domestic and Sexual Violence Coordination Office (DSVCO), the Gateway Center, Raphael House and YWCA.

Plans call for 88 studios, 109 one-bedroom units and 43 two-bedroom units in the building, which is rising on the western half of a block bound by Northeast Grand and Sixth avenues, and Hassalo and Holladay streets. The property has seen three previous development proposals fail – most recently a bid in 2012 to build a 28-story, 321-foot-tall hotel.

The current $74 million project is being funded through a mix of public and private sources – primarily $28.7 million worth of federal low-income housing tax credits. An additional $18 million is coming from bond funding, and $5.1 million more is coming from the city of Portland.

The project is being constructed by O’Neill-Walsh Community Builders, a formal partnership between two general contracting firms. The partnership allows O’Neill, a registered MWESB (minority-owned, woman-owned or emerging small business) contractor, to gain experience on larger projects that also require the general contractor to employ certain percentages of minority and female tradespeople.

“We have a long history of really enriching the pool for both our subcontractors in the city and working with nonprofits to build these kinds of buildings that are desperately needed in the community,” Walsh project manager Meghan Herteg said recently as she looked out over the concrete deck that will become the building’s second floor. There, workers from RDF Concrete, Western Rebar, Aluma and others prepared the deck for further concrete.

It’s a fairly standard concrete post-tensioned structure, Herteg said, with an exterior skin consisting of sheet metal and thin brick sourced from Mutual Materials of Clackamas.

Look beyond the tower’s appearance, however, and it’s clear that the design aims to accommodate pedestrian traffic and draw residents into Lloyd.

Lever Architecture principal Thomas Robinson said his firm is excited to see the final product and how it serves the district.

“We were really interested in creating a great home for residents that leverages connections with the vibrant local economy,” he said. “It has proximity to transit and it’s close to downtown.”

The ground floor will provide convenience for pedestrians. An open-air courtyard, named Jim Smith Garden in honor of Home Forward’s former board chairman, is designed to draw in people from all directions. That central space will connect with the building’s lobby, commercial spaces – including property management offices – and the building’s north and south sides via covered walkways. Along Grand Avenue, the building’s façade will gently curve away from the sidewalk on either side of the entrance to embrace pedestrians and give them more space.

“If you look at the plan, the corners are day-lit, which is really nice,” Robinson said. “I think the units are going to be really great, so we’re excited about how the building combines retail and outdoor space and the connections to transit. The building creates opportunity both for people and for the city.”

A LEED for Homes gold rating will be pursued for the project.

The post Making headway on a huge housing project appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.