Apartment projects apply for Vancouver tax exemptions

• WDC Construction’s 32,500-square-foot apartment building at 500 E. 15th St. will cost an estimated $4.2 million. Proposed rents for the 48 units range from $800 for a live/work one-bedroom to $1,275 for a two-bedroom unit. The project qualifies for a 12-year tax exemption.

• Prestige Development’s five-story, 84,788-square-foot building, called “Our Heroes Place,” at 409 E. Mill Plain Blvd. and 412 E. 13th St., will cost an estimated $11.6 million. Proposed rents for the 48 units range from $1,000 for a studio to $1,650 for a one-bedroom unit. Proposed sales prices range from $200,000-plus for a one-bedroom condominium to $1.1 million for a penthouse. The building will contain 3,448 square feet of commercial space. Because the project does not include affordable housing, it qualifies for an eight-year tax exemption rather than 12 years.

To be eligible for a 12-year exemption, 20 percent of the development’s units must be affordable housing. The affordable housing must be rented or sold to people who earn less than 115 percent of the area’s median income. That figure would amount to $59,225 annually for a single person or $84,525 for a family of four.

The eight-year exemption doesn’t require affordable housing.

Both tax exemptions are available only for developments in the downtown and Fourth Plain corridor areas. The program requires construction to be finished within three years of tax exemption approval. The land’s value is taxed as usual, as well as any other new construction associated with the project, and the development generates utility taxes and sales tax from construction.

Since the city implemented the Multi-Family Tax Exemption Program in 1997, 11 developments have been built or approved under the program, bulking up the housing stock by more than 1,100 units. Including the three new apartment buildings, four of the 14 total projects offer at least 20 percent of their units to low-to-moderate income tenants.

Tax exemptions on some of the projects, such as Heritage Place, Vancouvercenter and Uptown Village, have recently expired, and now they are paying full property taxes. Prestige Plaza and the 15 West Apartment project (under construction) received 12-year exemptions.

Monday, city councilors noted that many of the projects wouldn’t have been built at all without the tax credit. “It doesn’t pencil out at the front, or they wouldn’t be doing this,” Councilor Jack Burkman said.

The city council will consider the tax exemption agreements following a public hearing Jan. 25.