A five story, 114-unit apartment building set to open in 2021 will round out Hubbell Realty Co.'s rental offerings in the Bridge District, a rapidly developing neighborhood in the East Village.

Located on the north end of the development near Interstate 235, the Level building will have a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Construction of the $26.9 million apartment building is expected to begin in early 2020.

The Bridge District is on the east bank of the Des Moines River, stretching from Des Moines Street to Interstate 235and from Robert D. Ray Drive to East Fourth Street.

Level, the last apartment planned for the Bridge District, will have 114 units in five stories.(Photo: Hubbell Realty Co./Special to the Register)

The16-acre developmentis considered downtown Des Moines' only neighborhood in the traditional sense, with front doors and flower pots lining thenarrow streets where one-story warehouses once stood.

By 2025, when the company expects the neighborhood to be completed, the Bridge District will have nearly 500 housing units.

More: The newest downtown Des Moines neighborhood is so popular people are buying homes before the foundation is poured

Like the neighborhood's existing apartment buildings, Level will offer a wide array of amenities,includingindoor, climate-controlled parking, an indoor and outdoor fitness area, bicycle and kayak storage, a dog park and an "oversized patio" off the fifth-floor mezzanine, according to Hubbell Realty Co.

Level, the last apartment planned for the Bridge District, will have 114 units in five stories.(Photo: Hubbell Realty Co./Special to the Register)

The company is scheduled to present its design plans to the city's Urban Design Review Board on Tuesday.

Staff have worked with Hubbell Realty Co. on the design features of Levelbecause the building will be "highly visible on all sides, including prominent viewshedsfrom both banks of the Des Moines River," according to a city memo.

Level's building materials will have visual interest, as well as prominent landscape features, a streetscape, and a "visually interesting" curvature of the private drive, the memo says.

Ten percent of the units will be affordable torenters earning approximately 80% of the area median income. That's an annual salary of $49,000 for a single person and $56,000 for a family of two, according to the Polk County Housing Trust Fund.

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The Bridge District caters to a mix of homeowners and renters. Two apartment buildings, Verve and Velocity, have a total of 243 units. Velocity is 100% occupied; Verve is 93%.

Hubbell Realty Co. has sold 42 townhomes in a development known as The Bankssince 2017. Forty-four are complete; another 10 are under construction.

The 1,800- to 3,500-square feet townhomes come in a variety of floor plans, ranging in price from$375,000 to $750,000.

Constructions of athird phase of townhomes is expected to start in 2020. There will be a total of 120 owner-occupied townhomes in the Bridge District.

Kim Norvell covers growth and development for the Register. Reach her at knorvell@dmreg.com or 515-284-8259.

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Five-story, 114-unit apartment building planned for the Bridge District in the East Village - Des Moines Register

The second apartment building could open in February, said Killgore, who gave The Times a tour of the property this week.

When completed, the complex will feature a four-story main building in the center of the property that will house amenities, clubhouse and leasing offices. Amenities include an outdoor pool, fitness area, outdoor grills and fire pit, cyber cafe, pet spa and dog park.

The idea is for (the complex) to feel like a resort, Killgore said.

The development will feature 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom units, and for an extra charge, residents can rent a garage. Apartment rental rates werent available.

The complex will feature carriage units where residents wont have neighbors living above or below them just next to them.

Everything will be done by July, Killgore said.

The company was attracted to Gainesville because there has been significant job growth in this market with very little (apartment) supply delivered, he said.

Excerpt from:
When The Mill at New Holland apartment complex will open to residents - Gainesville Times

Proposed rendering of 324 Macon Street as it appears on the Macon Street streetscape./Image Credit: Gerald J. Caliendo Architects

The applicants and Landmarks staff will work together to modify details for the proposed building. On December 3, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to approve a certificate of appropriateness to construct a new three-story residential building on a vacant lot at 324 Macon Street, Brooklyn, located within the Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District.

The lot was formerly the site of a three-story building which was built around 1889 and was demolished around 1967. The former building was designed by William Zang, the architect who designed the nearby 326 Macon Street and 330 Macon Street rowhouses.

The new building is designed by Gerald J. Caliendo Architects. Lakshmi Samlal of Gerald J. Caliendo Architects stated that the architects tried to replicate the style and details of 326 and 330 Macon Street in the buildings proposed design while adhering to zoning bulk regulations on the 324 Macon Street lot.

Left Image: 326 Macon Street/Image Credit: Google MapsRight Image: 330 Macon Street and detail of door/Image Credit: Gerald J. Caliendo Architects

In the proposed design, the new building has a brownstone colored cast stone front faade with a Neo-Greco style cornice with geometric ornament on top of the building. The cornice was modeled off of the cornice on the 326 Macon Street building. The front faade has wood single hung windows with pediments and cast stone surrounds that span across the third-floor faade and one single hung window will be on the east side of the second-floor faade. Two bay windows stacked on the other span vertically on the west side of the building from the first-floor faade to the second-floor faade on the west side. The bay windows have metal paneling that is painted to match the front faades brownstone color. The door is a brown Neo-Greco style single entry door with pediments and cast stone surrounds modeled after the door of the 330 Macon Street building. The stairs leading up to the door are tinted concrete that matches the brownstone color. An iron railing is included in front of the building and it matches the railing in front of 326 Macon Street. The rear faade of the building is grey stucco.

The new building will be located within the Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights Historic District. The district is predominantly characterized by row houses and small apartment buildings with ground floor commercial space built in the late-19th century. The streetscape of Macon Street where the lot is located is characterized by Neo-Greco, Italianate, and Romanesque Revival style brownstone row houses. The significant architectural features found on these buildings include cornices with geometric ornaments, stucco rear-facades, iron railings, and door and windows framed with pediments.

Vice Chair Frederick Bland stated that the proposed design is a replication that just misses and believed that more work needs to be done to ensure the design details are more appropriate for the district. Commissioner Michael Goldblum also agreed and recommended that the rear faade should be brick instead of stucco.

Brittany Thomas testified on behalf of the Historic Districts Council. The Historic Districts Council believed that the proposed doorway is not acceptable for the building and explained that 330 Macon Streets door design would have been appropriate for the proposed buildings door if the door was a double entry door like 330 Macon Street.

Evelyn Colliers, Brooklyn Community Board 3s Landmarks Committee Chair, testified on behalf of the committee. Brooklyn Community Board 3s Landmarks Committee believed that doorway was inappropriate for the proposed building and the bay windows were too large compared to other bay windows in the district.

Landmarks voted to approve the certificate of appropriateness, however, Landmarks Chair Sarah Carroll asked that the applicants work with Landmarks staff to modify the buildings design details in order for the building to fit better with the streetscape. Specifically, the Commission recommended the buildings rear faade to be brick rather than stucco and wanted to refine the details of the buildings bay windows, cornice, iron railing, and entrance infill.

By: May Vutrapongvatana (May is the CityLaw Fellow and New York Law School Graduate, Class of 2019).

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Landmarks Approves New Building Construction in Bedford Stuyvesant/Expanded Stuyvesant Heights HD, Brooklyn - CityLand

The fire in the Lacrosse building in 2014 Melbourne heralded the beginning of intense focus on the quality of building work in Australia.

2020 will see that focus continue. Many of the Victorian Governments taskforce findings and recommendations are now making their way into policies and proposals for long term structural changes in the regulation of building work. Many in the development and construction industry are also taking a pro-active approach in seeking to identify more effective ways of producing quality, compliant buildings and not relying on regulation to achieve that.

In 2020, we expect to see:

For a building project with a value of $25 million, the additional levy will add approximately $205,000 to the cost of the development. Those funds will be used by Cladding Safety Victoria for the rectification of extreme and high risk buildings with non-compliant external cladding;

Link:
Combustible cladding and other building defects - what does 2020 hold for the industry? - Lexology

by Kerrie KennedyDecember 18, 2019

What if there were a simple way to solve the nations inventory and related affordability problem? Industry experts have been wringing their hands about the issue for years, but a new report from Zillow says theres an easy answer: Relax zoning rules in single-family neighborhoods.

According to the Zillow report, allowing just one in 10 single-family homeowners in a given neighborhood to build a backyard cottage, add a basement apartment or put a livable in-law suite above a garage would provide a solution to the housing affordability crisis. Moreover, it isnt likely to drastically alter the existing streetscape.

Single-family neighborhoods account for the vast majority of land in metropolitan America, but local regulations have effectively prevented them from becoming denser. Some cities have found a solution by expanding outward, but not every city has the land to do so and sprawl tends to increase pollution and commute time. Its a growing problem that has led to skyrocketing prices in large cities across the country.

In the South, where historically its been easier to build new homes on the periphery, prices have risen a little more than 10 percent over the past 20 years. But in the Los Angeles metro area, for example, median home values have more than doubled over the past 20 years. Similarly, in the San Francisco Bay Area, they have nearly doubled, and in Seattle, prices have increased by almost two-thirds.

While housing starts are up across the nation, industry experts say that isnt nearly enough to keep up with population growth and new household formation. Building at current levels is expected to produce about 10 million new homes across 17 metros nationwide over the next two decades. But allowing for two units on just 10 percent of single-family lots would add an additional 3.3 million homes to the mix, a 27 percent increase in inventory.

In Boston, an additional 368,362 homes are expected to be built by 2040 under the current status quo. However, if one in 10 single-family lots were allowed to add a second unit, an additional 189,581 homes could be built a boost of 51 percent.

Both adding more units to single-family lots and changing zoning to allow triplexes, quadplexes and townhomes could reignite development even further, the report said. Cities like Minneapolis and Oregon have already taken steps in that direction by allowing the construction of accessory dwelling units.

If it [were] just a few more affordable apartment buildings it wouldnt be a problem, but we need a lot of additional supply to put the pace of long-term price and rent growth in line with income and wage growth, said Skylar Olsen, Zillows director of economic research, adding that ADUs are a less disruptive way to get the job done. Asking a few neighborhoods to absorb that change on their own is asking for a community to accept a totally different neighborhood in the future a neighborhood different from the one they bought into and grew to love.

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The solution to the affordability crisis is right in our backyards, says a new report - Boston Agent Magazine

CINCINNATI After a 25-year career as a machinist and 11 years in the same Over-the-Rhine apartment, Daniel Eubanks never expected to be homeless at this point in his life.

But Eubanks ended up out on the street this past summer after the building where he lived was sold.

Now, a week before Christmas, hes spending his days at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County in Downtown and his nights at The David and Rebecca Barron Center for Men homeless shelter in Queensgate.

Its the community, said Eubanks, 63, explaining why the Peete Street apartment was so important to him. I went to Rothenberg, which is just a street over. I got grandkids in this neighborhood that need support and theyve tooken that all away from me.

Hes far from alone.

The regions shortage of low-income housing combined with a push for redevelopment in the urban core have left a growing number of people struggling to find decent housing they can afford, said John Schrider, director of the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio.

Its actually kind of a good news, bad news kind of story, said Schrider, who also serves as chairman of the local Affordable Housing Advocates. Good news for some people but bad news for people at the lower end of the ladder.

Courtesy of Daniel Eubanks

There could be more good news on the horizon.

Community leaders are working to complete a 10-year housing strategy for Greater Cincinnati thats aimed at solving the communitys affordable housing crisis.

The recommendations are scheduled to be finished in February and could help thousands of local residents living in housing that consumes an outsized chunk of their income, said Kathy Schwab, executive director of LISC Greater Cincinnati.

RELATED: City leaders pledge action, plan for affordable housing crisis

We have tons of recommendations around tenant protections and anti-gentrification policies, Schwab said. It is a humongous problem.

Eubanks is feeling it.

For more than a decade, he has had a housing choice voucher, more commonly known as Section 8. Eubanks thought that would make it easier for him to find a new place to live after he had to leave his place at 212 Peete St.

But he has struggled for more than four months to find a decent place that will accept his voucher and can pass inspection, he said.

This final place Im trying to get into now failed three inspections. It seemed promising if they can just get through the inspection, Eubanks told WCPO. The first failure was the stove. The second failure was the stove.

The landlord tried to put him in a different unit, he said.

That failed as well, he said. But it wasnt the stove. It was the electrical outlets.

Several recommendations that Schwab expects to be part of her groups final report could offer help to people in Eubanks situation.

Slowing down the problem

One recommendation relates to policies prohibiting income discrimination.

Such a policy would prohibit landlords from discriminating against people who have government vouchers to help pay their rent. The city currently has an ordinance related to income discrimination but doesnt enforce it, Schwab said.

The group developing a 10-year housing strategy wants to see the city of Cincinnati enforce its ordinance and would like to see Hamilton County adopt a similar measure, she said.

Another recommendation could be to require landlords to give tenants more notice if they are being forced out by redevelopment.

Schwab said the idea behind that recommendation would be that any property owner who receives city funding for redevelopment would have to give tenants six months to find a new place to live instead of just 30 days.

That wont create more housing, but it could slow down the problem and help reduce homelessness, she said.

Lucy May | WCPO

The group also wants to see the city establish dedicated, annual sources of funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to promote development and preservation of affordable housing, Schwab said in an email.

A 2017 study by Xavier Universitys Community Building Institute found that for every 100 of the lowest-income households in Hamilton County, there are only 28 units of housing that are affordable and available.

To have enough for everyone, the county would need 40,000 more units of affordable housing for families with an annual household income of $14,678 or less, the study found.

That doesnt mean the city and county need to build 40,000 units of housing to meet the need, Schwab said.

We have a lot of vacant housing, she said.

Plus, if local governments encourage the construction of more housing for middle class families, that would open up lower-cost housing naturally, she said.

People like Eubanks, though, just need that one place that will work.

Eubanks said he thought he had it with the apartment at 212 Peete St., where he lived for 11 years, but that all changed last summer.

Eviction predicament

A lawyer for the former owner of the building filed to have Eubanks evicted in June, telling the court that he owed $2,880 in back rent.

Eubanks was responsible for a portion of the rent as a recipient of a Section 8 voucher. He said his share totaled a little over $100 per month.

Stuart Richards, the lawyer who represented the former property owner, said his notes about the case indicated that the former landlord, Guilene Cadet, said Eubanks had not paid his portion of the rent for more than two years.

Eubanks said thats because he had a deal with Cadet. She told him that if he maintained the building for her while she lived out of town, he didnt have to pay his portion of the rent, Eubanks said.

I guess once she tried to sell the building, she wanted me out of there, he said.

Eubanks said he explained the situation in court, and the magistrate ultimately told him to pay $200 and move out without getting evicted.

Lucy May | WCPO

Ive done everything in good faith, Eubanks said.

He agreed to pay up and move out to avoid having an eviction on his record, he said.

WCPO could not reach Cadet for comment. Richards said he didnt recall those details of the case but thought maybe Eubanks hadn't done what Cadet expected of him.

Hamilton County Municipal Court records show the court ordered a writ of eviction on Aug. 1, after the building already had been sold, but the eviction was never carried out.

Eubanks has been holding out hope to move back to Peete Street after the renovations were complete.

Venu Akkinepalli, the buildings new owner, told WCPO in an email that he hasnt decided whether to accept Section 8 vouchers after renovations are complete.

Schrider said its uncommon for property owners in the region to buy a building, renovate it and then continue to accept Section 8.

Should redevelopment benefit everyone?

With this tightening market, there are fewer and fewer landlords with decent housing that are participating in the housing choice voucher program, he said. Theres always been a problem of getting landlords to participate in the program. Its even more difficult because of the market forces that are occurring in Cincinnati.

Those market forces also are getting a boost, Schrider said, when local governments provide incentives to developers to renovate properties.

Were actually in a sense subsidizing developers to buy properties to renovate them and to convert some affordable housing into luxury housing, he said. Not that thats a bad thing. But I think we have to take a look at our policies and make sure that were incentivizing some affordable housing as well.

Eubanks said thats what he would like to see.

Courtesy of Daniel Eubanks

He overcame a serious injury and subsequent drug addiction to get his life back on track after experiencing homelessness years ago, he said.

He loved the apartment where he lived, he said, and thought he would die there. Now he just wants to get into a decent place and get the belongings he has left out of storage, he said.

As a community, we should be wanting redevelopment to benefit everybody, Schrider said. And unfortunately in some neighborhoods thats just not happening.

Lucy May writes about the people, places and issues that define our region to celebrate what makes the Tri-State great and shine a spotlight on issues we need to address. Childhood poverty is an important focus for her and for WCPO. To reach Lucy, email lucy.may@wcpo.com. Follow her on Twitter @LucyMayCincy.

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How this long-time Over-the-Rhine resident ended up homeless when his building got sold - WCPO

Homeowners, and now apartment building owners, will find it easier to construct accessory dwelling units (aka granny flats) in West Hollywood with the City Councils revision tonight of current rules and regulations to bring the city into compliance with new state laws.

The changes will permit construction of accessory dwelling units and also junior accessory dwelling units on any residentially zoned property, whether it is zoned for single-family homes or multi-unit buildings. The revisions will also permit such units on property zoned for a mix of commercial and residential use. Currently West Hollywood allows ADUs only in areas zoned for single-family homes. An ADU is defined as an attached or detached residential dwelling unit, which provides complete independent living facilities for one or more persons. ADUs include permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation on the same lot as the primary residence. A junior ADU is a unit that can share a bathroom with the main house on the property.

The Council adopted several other changes to comply with the state laws, which take effect on Jan. 1, 2020. If the Council had failed to adopt the changes, the citys current ADU regulations would be voided and state law would apply. The other changes include:

Allowing an ADU in a converted garage without requiring that parking in the garage be replaced, which currently is a city requirement.

Requiring the city to give the property owner a building permit within 60 days of application. Currently, the city has 120 days to approve an ADU in a single-family zone and issue a building permit.

Setting limits on the size of accessory dwelling units based on the number of bedrooms. City law now states that an ADU cant be more than half as large as the house it is attached to, with a maximum limit of 1,200 square feet. The new state laws allow the size of an ADU to be limited to half the square footage of the main dwelling but with no maximum square footage. And the city must, at a minimum, allow studio and one-bedroom ADUs to be at least 850 square feet and ADUs with two or more bedrooms to be at least 1,000 square feet.

Ensuring that the property owner gets a building permit if the ADU meets the basic criteria. That saves the property owner from having to take a proposed addition through the citys complex approval process, which in some cases can include reviews by the citys Planning Commission and its Design Review Subcommittee.

The new state laws also bar cities from using subjective design standards, like those used by the West Hollywood Planning Commissions Design Review Subcommittee, in deciding whether to permit an accessory dwelling unit. But they do allow use of objective design standards in deciding whether the accessory units design is acceptable.

The laws, which include Assembly Bills 881 and 68(1) and Senate Bill 13, are the latest in a series of laws enacted by the state legislature to override restrictive local laws that have caused the states housing crisis. The State of California ranks 49th in the nation in the number of housing units per person, with only Utah having fewer. State Sen. Richard Bloom, whose 50th District includes West Hollywood, is the author of AB 881.

City Council members Lindsey Horvath and Lauren Meister argued for postponing a vote on the revisions until there was more clarity about some of the states requirements.

I hate to see us jump to have to accommodate a really badly written law, Meister said.

Meister said that it wasnt clear whether or not a building owner would be allowed to convert a carport into an accessory dwelling unit, thus removing parking spaces. She also expressed concern that the state law would require the city to permit construction of a studio or one-bedroom ADU of at least 850 square feet and a unit with two or more bedrooms of at least 1,000 square feet. Meister said smaller-sized units would likely be less expensive to build and more affordable to rent.

Horvath expressed concern that the proposed revisions said that a second story or two-story attached ADU may not exceed the height of the primary dwelling, a limit not included in the state law. The Council agreed to remove a provision from the proposed revisions that would put that limit on the height of an attached ADU.

Another issue was the requirement in the citys revised ordinance that leases of accessory dwelling units be for one year or more. In a letter to the city, Californians for Homeownership, a non-profit associated with the California Association of Realtors, said while the state law allows a city to require rentals of longer than 30 days, it doesnt specifically require a one-year minimum lease

The CAR noted that recent revisions in the citys laws now require a minimum lease of one year or more for apartment rentals but allow the rental of houses or condos for as few as 31 days. Because the minimum lease term does not apply to all residential units in the city, it is not a residential leasing rule of general applicability, and it cannot apply to ADUs, the CAR argued.

Mayor John DAmico said he supported allowing two-story accessory dwelling units. DAmico also said he supported converting carports into dwelling units. He said that would make apartment buildings sitting on top of surface-level carports more sturdy and less vulnerable to earthquake damage. DAmico also argued that removing those carports would mean removing the driveway associated with them and allowing placement of parking spaces on the street.

Councilmember John Heilman pushed for the Council to adopt the proposed changes, noting that if the city didnt do that by the end of the year, construction of accessory dwelling units would be governed solely by state law. Heilman said it also was unlikely that the city would see an immediate surge in construction of new ADUs and that it could always revise its ADU laws in the future, so long as it complied with state requirements.

The Council adopted the proposed revisions but stipulated that converting carports into ADUs was not permitted. The approval came in a four-to-one vote, with Meister voting no.

CORRECTIONS: An earlier version of this story erred in saying the changes required by state law would allow the owner of an ADU to sell it separately from the house. City staff is exploring that as a possibility. But in fact, an ADU can only be sold separately as an affordable unit through a non-profit organization. The story also has been updated to clarify that the city will not limit the height of a two-story or second story attached ADU to the height of the primary dwelling.

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Forced to Comply with State Law, the WeHo City Council Eases Restrictions on 'Granny Flats' - WEHOville

Photo provided

By CANDY NEALcneal@dcherald.com

HUNTINGBURG Work has been progressing on the workforce housing project at 319 N. Washington St. in Huntingburg.

Contractors have been working at the site since mid-July, and has the foundation down and the plumbing installed for the four buildings that will be on the site.

You had a wet summer down there, said Gary Ritz of Paragus, the Indianapolis company that is developing the site. So we had a lot of delays initially, because the site was too wet.

The $8 million project that will produce 56 housing units on the former Wagon Works site has been progressing since.

Were in the process of putting in the storm sewers, and then we will be bringing in the utilities to the site, Ritz said. That is the work that is currently happening now.

Ritz doesnt believe the weather will delay construction.

If we do, it would be for a short period of time. We expect be able to work through the winter, Ritz said. Your winter construction weather in Huntingburg is generally better than winter construction weather in Indianapolis, and almost always better than the winter construction weather for Fort Wayne, for example. And we have built in Fort Wayne before where we have built right through the winter with no delays.

The wood for the buildings will be delivered to the site around the first of the year. So you will see the wood framing start going up in early 2020, Ritz said. Youll see a lot of activity going on on the outside, with the framing going up. And then that work will turn to the inside, with a lot of the work occurring on the inside of the buildings.

But here in the next 30 to 45 days, youll see a lot of change from the outside.

Once completed, the Wagon Works development will have four buildings: three apartment buildings and a clubhouse. The complex will have 28 studio, 24 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom apartments in three housing units on the site. The site will have bike racks, a fenced dog-walking area, a picnic area, a parking space for each apartment and on-site management. Each apartment will have curtains or blinds; a porch, patio or balcony; a garbage disposal; dishwasher; and hookups for cable and for a washer and dryer.

The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority granted the development $794,541 in rental housing tax credits, mainly due to Huntingburg being one of the states Stellar Communities. Huntingburg has granted the project a 100% abatement for 10 years.

We expect to have the first apartments ready for occupancy in the spring, Ritz said, The first apartment building should be done in May, and the second one should be done a month or so after that, and the third one will be done later. We expect the entire job to be done in October of next year.

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Work progressing at former Wagon Works site - The Herald

(Image: Sustainable Living Innovations)

A new high-rise residential building along Madison Street will make use of both the citys Living Building initiative and a new modular construction technique as it climbs above First Hill.

The land on the corner of 9th Ave and Madison is currently home to the Quarter Lounge, Georges Delicatessen, and the now-empty former home of Lotus Asian Kitchen.

The building will be demolished to make way for a 21-story residential structure, with ground floor retail, being built by Sustainable Living Innovations.

Plans call for a 176-unit building, of which 47 will be affordable units, using two housing programs MFTE and Mandatory Housing Affordability. The building will have a mix of sizes including efficiency, and 1- and 2-bedroom units. The affordable housing component will similarly have a mix of efficiency and 1- and 2-bedroom units. Five of the 47 affordable units will be 2-bedroom units.

The developers of the 901 Madison project say they are working with the existing retail tenants, and talking with the First Hill Improvement Association to find the best fit for retail in the area for the corner across the street from neighborhood icons Vitos and The Sorrento Hotel.

The building will have two underground parking levels with about 40 spaces, which will enter and exit off 9th.

The developers plan to make use of the citys Living Building incentive program. Under the program, they will be permitted two additional floors of height (without the living building, only 19 floors would have been allowed) in exchange for meeting ecologically friendly building standards.

Madison is no stranger to green building. The ultra-green Bullitt Center is a few blocks up the road at Madison and 15th. Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, Bertschi School on 10th also has a certified Living Building as a part of its campus.

The developers plan to have the building generate 105% of the power it uses through a mixture of wastewater heat recovery (using the heat from hot water that goes down the drain), efficient heat pumps and solar panels. They are also exploring the idea of using wastewater heat from other nearby buildings.

The developers 303 Battery project in Belltown will soon open as a 15-story, 112-unit Net Zero Energy building

Downtown at 1800 Terry, Sustainable Living Innovations is planning this 40-story, 428 unit luxury apartment tower that will also employ the modular construction technique

In addition to the heat, the building will use graywater treatment, where water that might otherwise go into the sewer is instead used for things like flushing toilets or irrigation.

Under program guidelines, builders are permitted to claim credit for off-site solar panels, and that is something the developer will likely do as well. They have yet to determine the layout of the on-site solar panels, so theyre not yet certain how much off-site solar will be required or where the offsite solar will be.

While not formally part of the Living Building program, developers say that their modular construction methods will be another feather in their environmentally conscious cap.

In this method, the building will be constructed in parts in a factory in Tacoma, then shipped to the site and slotted into place. This style of building helps reduce waste, and can ensure insulation is properly fitted, the developers say. The building will be the second high-rise of its kind in Seattle, after the developers 303 Battery, which is slated to begin construction in December 2019.

The method can also help reduce the construction time. In this case, they expect a total of 16 months, which includes demolition, site prep and construction. Developers hope to start construction in the end of 2020 or early 2021 and have the building open by the second quarter of 2022. By then, the RapidRide G bus rapid transit line should be fully in motion serving the corridor.

Going forward, the developers say 901 Madisons construction technique can make erecting taller buildings on small lots economically viable across the city (in the case of 901 Madison, the site is about 8,000 square feet), meaning we could see more modular buildings sprout from redevelopment sites. First Hill, by the way, will also see an innovative construction technique that is expected to become more widespread when a mass timber highrise ascends at 1422 Seneca. That new project will replace a one-story 1949-built dental office with a 12-story apartment building with room for 108 small efficiency dwelling units that also might end up being Seattles tallest mass timber, cross-laminated wood struture.

At 901 Madison, theres nothing on the schedule yet in terms of community meetings but the developer plans to make presentations about major design updates to the First Hill Improvement Association. And the project will also need pass through the East Design Review Board though that process has not yet been scheduled.

In the meantime, 901 Madisons modular construction and solar arrays hopefully wont be delayed by the same environmental concerns that delayed the Bullitt Center when a neighboring building used theStates Environmental Policy Act(SEPA)to fight against the structures vital solar infrastructure and, even more audaciously, tried to force the net zero waste building to provide more parking. In October, the Seattle City Council approved legislation to reform the use of SEPA aimed at minimizing environmental appeals.

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Paving the way for taller buildings on smaller lots, 21-story First Hill apartments will be super green and use modular construction - CHS Capitol...

A groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning for The Duet, a development that would consist of two apartment buildings at the intersection of Hale and Maple Avenues in White Plains.

There actually are two parcels involved: a lot at 97-111 Hale Ave., on the west side of the street and another directly across on the east side at 110-114 Hale Ave. The developer is Hale WP Owner LLC of Armonk. Saber Real Estate Advisors LLC, PCD Development LLC and Circle Squared Alternative Investments compose the development partnership. Martin G. Berger leads Saber; Jonathan Stein is the managing member of PCD, which is in New Providence, New Jersey; and Jeff Sica is president and CEO of New Jersey-based Circle Squared.

According to documents on file with the city of White Plains, the building on the east side is designed to be seven stories and have 70 apartments while the one on the west side would be eight stories and have 57 apartments. The total 127 residential units would include 13 designated as affordable. The buildings would have enclosed parking to accommodate a total of 170 vehicles. Both buildings are below the permitted height of 125 feet. The lot area on the west side of Hale is shown as being 20,000 square feet and the lot on the east side is 24,753 square feet.

The west building would have six studios, 31 one-bedroom units and 20 two-bedroom units. The east building would have five studios, 49 one-bedroom units and 16 two-bedroom apartments.

At the groundbreaking, White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach said, At one time this city was a retail hub, it was a corporate hub and it still remains that. But, both of those areas have shifted dramatically and you have to shift with them. He said the city has done that in development by moving to the residential side and this is just another great example of that.

Berger told the Business Journal that although construction costs have gone up since The Duet project was first proposed, they anticipate it will come in close to the $48 million originally estimated.

We spent the last 18 months redesigning the parking garages which were exorbitantly expensive because of the limited size of the parcel and we were able to take all of those savings and put them back into upgraded finishes throughout the building, he said. We used the savings to upgrade the interior finishes and the exterior finishes on the building.

The Westchester County Industrial Development Agency provided incentives for the project, including $370,000 in mortgage recording tax exemption and $794,685 in sales tax exemption. When the IDA adopted a resolution granting benefits to the project, it noted that this was presented as an open shop project from a labor standpoint and included a requirement that the developer have discussions with unions to help achieve the developers hope to use as much union and local labor as is competitive in the project. The IDA was told that the project would create 180 construction jobs and five permanent jobs.

We are doing everything we can to keep our costs in line, Berger said about the costs of materials and labor. He also said that lenders seem to like financing projects in White Plains these days in part because the city has a controlled supply of developments either underway or in the pipeline. I think what is problematic is that real estate taxes are high and construction costs keep soaring, he said.

Berger drew a contrast between the Hale Avenue project and one hes doing in Poughkeepsie, which encompasses 156 acres of multifamily and mixed-use development. In regard to the Hale Avenue apartments, what is nice is that the buildings are small in size and you have the benefit of being with a smaller collection of residents, he said, adding that with projects like the one in Poughkeepsie, You create a village, a work-play village.

Berger expects two major factors to have special appeal at Hale Avenue: the location and the attention to detail in the finishes. The location is excellent. You have Whole Foods next door, you have The Westchester and Neiman Marcus across the street and youre two blocks from Mamaroneck Avenue so with the walkability you have all of the restaurants and bars, Berger said. He also noted that the proximity to I-287 should be attractive for people who need highway access rather than being next to a Metro-North station.

The Duet project has been designed to appeal to couples, including empty nesters, rather than millennials. The bathrooms have double sinks and double vanities. They have large, oversized closets, little things that are essential for couples and older people as compared with millennials, Berger said.

Berger said that with the groundbreaking accomplished, they plan to be putting the real shovels in the ground right after the new year and expect to start taking residents about 20 months after that.

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Developers break ground on The Duet apartment project in White Plains - Westfair Online