The Vancouver City Council on Monday night approved a loan of up to $900,000 and a multifamily tax exemption to rehabilitate student housing called Village 57 Apartments and turn it into mixed-income housing, including 25 affordable units.
Village 57 Apartments, 2909 N.E. 57th Ave., Vancouver, is a 48-unit dormitory complex that the International Air and Hospitality Academy uses to house its students studying to be flight attendants or work in the travel industry.
The building, which is near the Fourth Plain Vine bus rapid transit and a grocery store, will continue to house students until the end of the year, an academy staff member said Tuesday.
The school will close permanently after April 2025, according to a city staff report.
DIG Real Estate, which specializes in multifamily and mixed-use development and built the Coen apartments in downtown Vancouver, plans to buy the building and upgrade parts of it.
The rehabilitation will include replacing noncompliant Americans with Disabilities Act elements in the bathrooms and kitchens, equipping wood burning stoves with new electric inserts and replacing approximately 100 recalled wall heaters. The project will be fully electric, according to the staff report.
DIG Real Estate will also upgrade some appliances, add a bike rack and children’s play equipment, add window port air-conditioning units and add energy-efficient features.
The project will receive a loan through the Fourth Plain for All Affordable Housing Loan, created in November 2023 through the Fourth Plain for All Investment Strategy. The program outlines how the city will invest $25 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds by 2026 in neighborhoods surrounding Fourth Plain Boulevard between Interstates 5 and 205.
Under that loan, the project will need to have 12 units restricted to 60 percent area median income ($49,560 for a single person in Vancouver, according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development).
The city will also give the project a multifamily tax exemption for 12 years in exchange for 10 units reserved for people at or below 80 percent of area median income ($66,100 for a single person in Vancouver).
However, the city will still receive taxes from the land value and other additional revenues from the development, including construction materials, sales tax and permit fees, according to the staff report.
DIG Real Estate declined to comment on the project, citing an unfinished contract.
During Monday’s council meeting, Councilor Sarah Fox said the fact that this is a rehabilitation project stands out to her.
“I’m not a greenhouse gas emissions expert, but I would say that when you’re rehabbing a building, that embodied carbon of the project is a pretty high benefit to the city versus building from new,” Fox said.
