Now Leasing: Africatown Community Land Trust Wraps Up Construction on New Affordable Housing Building

by Lauryn Bray

Africatown Community Land Trust (ACLT) is wrapping up the final stages of construction on their new affordable housing building at 23rd Avenue and East Spring Street, Africatown Plaza.

Constructed by a diverse team of architects, contractors, and engineers led by general contractor Kevin Young in partnership with Community Roots Housing, the new building is now in the process of leasing up and is soon expected to be ready for tenants.

"Diversity, equity, and inclusion creates strength because getting varied perspectives on so many different things helps tremendously, and those perspectives come from many different angles," said Muammar Hermanstyne, head of real estate at ACLT. "It was a very diverse group of folks [working on this project] and I think each set of people brought their individual strengths to the table."

The building, located in the heart of the Central District, Seattle's rapidly gentrifying historically Black neighborhood, will help combat displacement by providing 126 units of affordable housing to individuals and families making 50—60% of the area median income. Some applicants may be eligible for a voucher to lower those percentages. It is also ACLT's hope that the building entices families who were pushed out of the Central District to come back.

Whitney Lewis, an architect with GGLO and Africatown project designer, said it was her first time working on a project like this, "Every time I would go to work on this project, it didn't feel like work — it kind of felt like, 'Oh, my God, is this real?'"

Despite all the fun, Lewis says her priority was making a positive impact on the community: "I always think about the fact that every decision that's made, it's not about me. It's about the people who live here and the people who will come through and experience this project because they're the ones who matter. I will never have the opportunity to live here," said Lewis, "but I will have the opportunity to help change someone's life."

According to her, working with ACLT made engaging with the community "graceful."

"The thing about this project is that ACLT really has so much skin in the game — they know everyone and everyone knows them — so that was not necessarily the easy part, but it made the on-ramp a lot more graceful than it could have been," said Lewis. "They were able to say, 'Hey, we want you to come in and do this community engagement piece,' but they [also] gave us a lot of legroom to make it what we wanted it to be so that we could get information out of the community and use that to help guide that design."

Construction on the building was originally anticipated to span 18 months; however, Young, founder of M.A.D. Construction LLC, says there were hindrances that delayed the building's completion: "We had a concrete strike at one point in time during this project, which pushed us out." In 2022, drivers organized under the local union Teamsters 174 refused to work amidst contract negotiations with the concrete corporations Corliss Management and Glacier Northwest.

Right now Young says the only thing they're waiting on to finish up construction is the building's transformer, which was delayed due to a problem with the order for the switchgear. "The only holdup, which has been a big holdup, and it has a lot to do with COVID, was the switchgear. "Well, we got the switchgear and now it's the transformer," said Young. "We don't have permanent power yet — the power is localized. We have [temporary power distribution] boxes located on each floor."

The final stage of construction on Africatown Plaza will conclude in less than four months.

"I'm excited to go back after the building opens and just to sit and see how people experience the site itself because that's the one thing that we couldn't plan for [and] we couldn't predict," said Lewis. "Just to hear what people think about it because I've lived with this project since 2018 and it's been something that I've been looking at so closely — just to be able to have someone else's perspective and to hear how they feel about living in something that I've lived with for the longest time — would be phenomenal. That would be the gift that keeps on giving."

The Plaza is an initiative of Africatown Community Land Trust — in partnership with Community Roots Housing — reflecting their commitment to provide equitable solutions in housing to the community. For more information about The Plaza and how to apply, visit www.africatownplaza.org.

Editors' Note: This story was updated on 03/12/2024 to correct the percentages of area media income needed to qualify for affordable housing units.

📸 Featured Image: Architect rendering of Africatown Plaza by GGLO. (Photo courtesy of Africatown Community Land Trust.)