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The three builders will add significantly to the inventory
of new homes for sale in
Southeast Seattle,
with a wide range of prices to the high $300,000s.
The total value of the lot sales is over $11.8 million.
“This partnership allows the neighborhood and homebuyers to benefit
from the expertise of these capable builders. At the same time, it
maximizes the proceeds to the Housing Authority.” Proceeds from
these land sales make it possible for Seattle Housing to finance new
low-income housing in the same neighborhood and elsewhere in
Seattle.
Seattle Housing
served successfully as developer/builder of the first 200 for-sale
homes at New
Holly. However, as a public agency we are not organized to
efficiently build and sell to home buyers in a competitive market
place, therefore Seattle Housing directors concluded that private
builders could better reflect buyers’ preferences and build the
remainder of the new homes more efficiently.
Seattle Housing continues to direct the design of the new
homes. All proposed designs must comply with a set of stringent
design guidelines, written specifically for New
Holly.
The largest purchaser of building lots is Polygon
Northwest, which plans to build about 150 new homes in the area west
of the intersection of
Othello Street
and Martin
Luther King, Jr. Way. Polygon will build both single family and
townhouses, some with carriage houses. Polygon expects to offer its
new homes with selling prices from $195,000 to $264,000.
A partnership between
Bennett
Homes
and Sherman
Homes has been created to acquire 22 lots south of Othello Street.
The partnership will build and market 22 single family homes, with
prices beginning around $340,000. This land sale closed on July 16,
and construction is now underway, with substantial completion
expected by January 2007.
Family Pryde was the first builder to purchase land in the
New
Holly
neighborhood.
This Eastside company bought 8 lots on S.
Holly
Place,
along with the plans and permits for the lots. The eight duplex
homes have been under construction since March and are available for
sale now with move-in this fall. The homes, all on the same block on
the north side of
S. Holly
Pl.
between
33rd Pl. S.
and
34th Pl. S., are nearly complete.
All three builders have had successful experience building
new developments in
Seattle’s
suburbs. Seattle Housing’s major redevelopment of the old
Holly
Park site in
Southeast Seattle
created an
opportunity for builders to purchase large land parcels within a new
neighborhood within the city limits.
With the construction of new rental housing well underway
south of
Othello Street,
the work of these builders will complete the housing in this new
neighborhood. When complete, the entire neighborhood will consist of
about 1,400 new homes. New services, including the NewHolly
branch of the
Seattle Public Library and a branch campus of South
Seattle
Community
College,
provide desirable
new neighborhood amenities.
The builders will build in a variety of price ranges so
that some of the new housing will be affordable to first time home
buyers and other less affluent owners as well as to higher-income
buyers. Seattle Housing intends for the new neighborhood to be
economically diverse, and the new homes will be marketed just as any
other group of new homes in the city.
A recent study commissioned by the City of Seattle Office
of Housing examined housing demand and supply in three Seattle
Neighborhoods, including
Southeast Seattle.
Conducted by Real Vision Research, Inc., the study noted that the
new housing being created by this redevelopment project will be
welcomed by in-city buyers seeking housing near transit and
convenient to downtown.
The Housing Authority also plans to sell lots to private
builders at its other two major redevelopment sites, Rainier Vista
near
Columbia
City
and
High Point
in
West Seattle.
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