(Photo | Courtesy of Housing Works)
Housing Works invites you to the grand opening event celebrating the completion of Midtown Place, a 47-unit affordable housing apartment community designed to support working families and individuals living in Redmond. The event will start at 1:30pm on Wednesday, February 23. Speakers will include government officials and partners involved in bringing this development to fruition.
The $12.4 million development, located north of downtown Redmond at 736 NW 5th Street, features one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and is the first affordable housing development in Central Oregon to include apartments for households earning up to 80 percent of the area median income. These homes are designed for active families and feature efficient, open floor plans and patio/deck access extending the residents’ outdoor living space.
Planning for the project began in 2018, working closely with the Redmond Urban Renewal Agency, to transform a long vacant lot into workforce housing for downtown and medical district workers.
“Because of the scarcity of state funding, affordable housing developments are becoming more reliant on local support,” said David Brandt, executive director of Housing Works. “The city of Redmond has long recognized the relationship between affordable housing and the growth of new businesses and has included housing in its economic development program.”
The City of Redmond provided over $3.2 million of the funding needed through an Urban Renewal Loan, Community Development Block Grant and system development charge fee waiver. Without the city’s support, this development would not have been possible. Additional funding was provided by Oregon Housing and Community Services and includes Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credits, Oregon Multifamily Energy Program and loans from Washington Federal and Housing Works.
Midtown Place is loaded with efficiency measures including extra insulation, high performance windows, ductless mini-split heating and cooling, LED lighting and energy star rated appliances. Midtown was designed with an urban flare by Pinnacle Architecture from Bend and constructed by Pacific Construction Company from Redmond. Housing Works, the project developer, is the regional housing authority for the three Central Oregon counties and has built or acquired over 1,200 affordable rental housing units since its founding in 1977. Housing Works is currently developing a new affordable rental community in Prineville and soon will be starting a significant rehabilitation project on a 96-unit development in Bend. Housing Works has existing communities in every incorporated city in Central Oregon except Culver and Metolius.
Midtown Place is the third affordable housing development in Redmond undertaken by Housing Works in the past three years. The other two communities include Canyon Edge Apartments, a three-building 67-unit family development on Reindeer Avenue near Canal Boulevard, and Liberty Lodge, an eight-unit community reserved for tenants with developmental disabilities.
To learn more about Housing Works and the variety of housing services they provide throughout Central Oregon, visit housing-works.org, or call 541-923-1018.
