Amazon puts up $100M for affordable housing near light rail stations
Last edited Thu Jun 17, 2021, 02:39 PM - Edit history (1)
Amazon.com Inc. is putting up $100 million toward 1,200 affordable housing units on Sound Transit’s surplus properties, the two organizations announced Wednesday.
The units are a part of Sound Transit's equitable transit-oriented development policy, which plans to have 1,500 affordable housing units built on surplus properties.
The funding from Amazon is for below-market loans to developers working with the regional transit agency. The first $25 million will be for pre-development activities like site due diligence, engineering and permitting, while the remaining $75 million will support the construction of new housing.
The construction of the units will start by 2025 around Sound Transit’s existing and planned light rail stations, which could include those in Bellevue, SeaTac, Redmond, Kent, Federal Way, Lynnwood and Seattle. Sound Transit has already requested proposals from potential development partners for property near the Angle Lake station in SeaTac.
“Increasingly, we are facing an affordable housing crisis across the entire Puget Sound region, and Sound Transit is expanding rail service into communities that are becoming less and less affordable for working families,” Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff said in a statement. “We have a forward-leaning policy of partnering with developers to facilitate affordable housing near our stations, but obtaining the necessary funding to build those units has always been a challenge."
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2021/06/16/amazon-affordable-housing-light-rail-sound-transit.html
Amazon commits $100 million for affordable housing in western Washington near light rail stations
Sound Transit and Amazon are partnering together to create more than 1,000 units of affordable housing near light rail stations.
Amazon announced Wednesday the company is committing $100 million to help build 1,200 affordable housing units. The money is part of the company's two-billion-dollar equity fund announced in January for the Puget Sound region, Arlington and Nashville.
"It's really a huge benefit to [Sound Transit] as we only have about $20 million available for loan capital to help get and keep affordable housing within proximity to the neighborhoods where we're building stations. Amazon just grew that to $120 million," said Sound Transit Chief Executive Officer Peter Rogoff.
Rogoff said Sound Transit selected likely spots for housing in Federal Way, Lynnwood, Overlake Village, and near the University District Station.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/amazon-commits-100-million-for-affordable-housing-in-western-washington-near-light-rail-stations/ar-AAL9aIY
= new reply since forum marked as read
