January 2020
Madison Park Times
Serving East-Central Seattle since 1983
Real Estate
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Office of Housing makes big D3 investments Africatown Plaza, The Eldridge included in city’s largest funding package to date, boosted by held sales tax By Brandon Macz
Madison Park Times editor District 3 affordable housing projects in the pipeline are closer to being realized after securing funding through the Seattle Office of Housing’s $110 million investment package this year, which is expected to create 1,944 new rental units in the next few years. This year’s investment in affordable rental housing is the largest to date, and includes $13 million in sales tax the city was able to retain through new legislation passed by state lawmakers earlier this year.
Capitol Hill Housing and community partners received funding for two projects.
Africatown Plaza Africatown Plaza is receiving $12 million in Office of Housing funding. The project, which will create 132 affordable housing units on a portion of the former Midtown Center site in the Central District, is slated to begin the Early Design Guidance process in early 2020. The project is being developed by Capitol Hill Housing and the Africatown Community Land Trust under its Afri-
Office of Economic Development opens Legacy Business nominations Bing’s in Madison Park might have qualified for a Legacy Business award, having operated for a decade here. Photo by Brandon Macz
By Brandon Macz
Madison Park Times editor The Seattle Office of Economic Development has opened nominations for a new Legacy Business Program, which will honor and support one longtime business from each city council district in 2020, its inaugural year. Spearheaded by District 1 Councilmember Lisa Herbold, the program is open to businesses that have been operating in Seattle for at least 10 years and have fewer than 50 employees, including their owners. Once nominated, those businesses must apply for consideration; businesses can also self-nominate. Winners will be decided by a selection committee comprised of business representatives from each district. Other criteria to be considered for a
Legacy Business designation include serving a greater community benefit beyond selling goods or services, contributing to the the ground-floor neighborhood identity and being at significant risk of displacement. Nominations are open until Feb. 14 and can be submitted at seattle.gov/oed/legacybusiness. The benefit of being declared a Legacy Business includes access to OED support services, including a commercial lease and succession planning toolkit, marketing, two hours of legal consultation with Wayfind Legal, a two-minute promotional video by Drag & Drop Creative and social media promotions by OED. An awards ceremony will be held in May to recognize the first round of Legacy Businesses during National Small Business Month.
Image courtesy of Capitol Hill Housing This rendering shows the latest design for Africatown Plaza, a proposed seven-story affordable housing development in the Central District. catown LLLP partnership. The Office of Housing previously provided the entity a $4.5 million loan to acquire 20 percent of the Midtown Center site from Lake Union Partners, which is developing a 432-unit mixed-use apartment project on the rest of the property. Africatown CEO K. Wyking Garrett tells MPT it’s great to see the City of Seattle prioritizing communities that have been harmed by past policies and practices
of redlining, disinvestment and predatory development. “This is an important step toward making sure, if this is going to be a world-class city, it should have a world-class black/African diaspora community,” Garrett said during an award ceremony earlier this month. He said community feedback during the early planning process included a high de HOUSING, Page 6
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