SEATTLE—June 17, 2005—The Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority assumed ownership today of Market House, a 51-unit apartment building for low-income seniors and people with disabilities built in 1983.
Market House, located on First Avenue and Pine Street, is an integral part of the market neighborhood. Seattle Housing Authority and the Pike Place Market PDA agreed that, with Market House under PDA ownership, residents would benefit from closer ties to the many services available for low-income people in the neighborhood.
The Pike Place Market PDA is the landlord for about 80 percent of the property in the Pike Place Market historic district. Part of the PDA's mission is to preserve and maintain services for low-income residents and people with special needs.
Stephanie Cirkovich, The Pike Place Market PDA's Marketing and Communications Director, notes, "the PDA's purchase of Market House is part of a larger effort to refurbish and add to the affordable housing stock in the Market."
The addition of Market House brings the PDA's housing portfolio to over 320 units, about three-quarters of which are affordable to very low-income households.
Bill Drummond, the PDA's Residential Property Manager, reports that, "For residents, the transition will seem like business as usual. Market House is a good, solid building that doesn't need any major work right now."
Current Market House residents will see a change in management, but will be able to stay and their rents will not increase. Residents pay 30 percent of their income for rent and utilities, and federal Section 8 payments cover operating and capital costs above rent revenue.