CBRE Group announced financing for construction of Lake City Senior Apartments at 13730 Lake City Way N.E. in Seattle's Lake City neighborhood.
The developer is Steve Smith Development LLC.
The five-story, 80-unit apartment building will have underground parking for 62 vehicles. Apartments will include a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, plus two ground-floor live-work units.
Morgan Design Group is the architect.
A fifth of the units will be affordable to seniors with incomes below 75 to 80 percent of area median income under Seattle's Multifamily Housing Property Tax Exemption Program.
The loan is funded by CBRE through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's new construction mortgage insurance program. Financing includes a 16-month, interest-only construction loan followed by a 40-year permanent loan.
The developer combined the Federal Housing Administration financing with equity from 16 foreign investors under the federal government's EB-5 visa program, which provides a green card to immigrant investors who invest at least $500,000 in a job-creating enterprise.
EB-5 Coast to Coast LLC is an owner in the project, along with Lake City Project Associates LLC, which is an entity related to the developer.
Steve Smith said in a statement that the project offered an “innovative and pioneering approach to financing a real estate development by combining FHA with EB-5.”
Smith's firm says on its website that the value of the project is $27 million. No one at the firm was immediately available yesterday to comment on construction plans.